Hexham Triathlon returns for the first time since Covid-19 pandemic

On September 4, children between the ages of five and 15 from all over the North East travelled to Wentworth Leisure Centre for the event.

The triathlon, organised by One Life Racing, sees the children swim laps of the pool - around buoys in what is known as an 'open water format' - before cycling around Wentworth carpark. The children all finish with laps of the Wentworth running track.

The young athletes complete between 50m and 300m swimming (depending on their age group), 700m to 4km cycling, and 400m to 2.4km running.

One Life Racing, which has 150 active members in total, said they were "delighted" with the performance of all their young athletes.

In the TriStarts (ages 7 and 8), Emma Bell took 1st place in the girls race and Austin Vincent placed 2nd in the boys, just 7 seconds behind the eventual winner.

In the TriStar 1 boys category (ages 9 and 10), Ned McClintock tore through the bike course to win by an impressive 44 seconds, whilst Chloe Saxon Wilkinson, in her first triathlon, managed to take victory by a handful of seconds, with her friend and training partner Martha Pugh coming in 3rd.

One Life Racing (Image: One Life Racing)

In the highly-competitive TriStars 2 boys race (ages 11 and 12), Wilfred Pugh placed 2nd after a scintillating bike ride.

The day concluded with One Life's famous 'Diddy Race' where a handful of under 7's sampled their first experience of triathlon with a fun - but competitive - 25m swim, 400m bike and 300m run.

Chair of One Life Racing, Mark Todhunter, said: "It's great to see the children racing back at Hexham again.

"As one of the most popular races in the junior race calendar we were determined to get the race back up and running this year and we've been rewarded with some superb racing and the joy of seeing a whole load of children participating in triathlon for the very first time. We're already looking forward to next year's event!"