Kent triathlete Dean Ratcliffe is hoping to use a good last competition as a springboard to success for the World Championships in October.

The Walderslade based triathlete has qualified along with 3 other Medway age group triathletes (Debarah Hope 35yrs to 39yrs, Christian Butler and Paul Sparks 45yrs to 49yrs) to represent GB in the 2012 Age group World champs being held in New Zealand during October.

Stepping up his preparations for the World Championships, Ratcliffe told KSN how he had got on in his latest national competition last weekend:

“My last major competition was the British Championships in June where I became the British Champion in the 45yrs to 49yrs age category. Since that date my training intensity has been pulled right back in order to peak for the world championships in October.”

“Last weekend (Sunday 19th August) I lined up to compete in Triathlon England’s National Championships for the national title of England, I must admit I’d discussed with my coach Philip Hatzis not competing in this event, I knew because of my lack of high end training over the last couple of months I wasn’t in the best shape for this event and felt that being the 45 to 49yr British Champion it could be a bit of a come down if I got beat in the English champs, but my coach and my team ‘TriTrainingHarder’ were keen on me competing to set the bench mark for my training leading up to the worlds!”

“The race started badly for me with one of my worst ever swims leading the race I got the course completely wrong and came out of the water well down the pack and leaving a lot of ground to make up on the bike. The bike course was perfect for me with a rolling course suiting a strong cyclist, so I managed to get off the bike in first place and have one of the fastest runs in my age category, in the end winning by over 2 minutes.”

“This has been a fantastic season for me, I now have two national titles and a European bronze medal and put this down to having a fantastic team around me, with my coach Philip and the Tri Training Harder Team.”

“The real training for the worlds will start from this point on, I have an intensive few weeks ahead and then in mid september head out to the Algarve Portugal to used the fantastic training facilities at the Tri Training Harder camp. After the two week training camp in Portugal I head back to the UK to compete the massive London Triathlon at the London Docklands on the 23rd September.”

“I’ll follow this with my last few weeks of training before heading out to New Zealand on the 14th October to prepare for the world age group championships on the 22nd October in Auckland.”

To keep up to date with Dean’s progress, keep an eye on KSN and should you wish to become a sponsor for him, please email [email protected]