Kent triathlete Dean Ratcliffe has shown his class by picking up a medal in the European Triathlon Championships last week.
The 45 year old from Chatham has been competing in age group competition for around three and a half years and this week he returned from Eilat in Israel where he had his first major success on the international stage, winning a standard distance (1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run) bronze medal for Great Britain at last weekends European Triathlon Championships in the 45yr to 49yr age category.
Speaking about his tremendous achievement. Ratcliffe was thrilled with his performance:
“This was the 6th time I have managed to qualify to represent GB at an international competition and to date my best performance and result. In my 1st year of competing I qualified to represent GB in the 2009 International Triathlon Union world championship finals on Australia’s Gold Coast, finishing in 79th place at standard distance.”
“During my second season I managed a 4th place for GB in the less competitive sprint distance (750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run) at the 2010 European Champs in Althlone Ireland and then later in the year 42nd place at the standard distance event in the Budapest 2010 World championship finals.”
“Sticking at standard distance from this point on I managed 15th place at the 2011 European championships in Pontevedra Spain in June 2011 and then last September achieved a pleasing 8th place at the 2011 world championship finals in Beijing, China.”
“I feel that I’m improving race by race as I pick up valuable experience and felt the race last weekend went very well both tactically and fitness wise despite being very early in the season!”
“I generally get stronger as the season moves on (usually May to September) so after this good performance so early on, I’m expecting big things for this coming season.”
“My two major events for this year are the National Championships on the last weekend in June and the world championships very late in this season at Auckland New Zealand during October (assuming I qualify!).”
To find out more about Ratcliffe’s international schedule and see more pictures, please visit:
http://www.triathlon.org/athletes/results/dean_ratcliffe/28566/