4am starts pay dividends as teenager Betsy North claims British Triathlon Championship glory

The Lee-on-the-Solent girl stormed to victory by almost a 20-second margin in taking the TRI Star 3 event - for 13- and 14-year-olds - in Sunderland.

To qualify for the championships, Betsy, 13, competed in eight regional triathlons in the South Central region - winning all of them.

In the north east, Betsy was first out of the water following a 300m sea swim off Roker Beach, and she stretched her winning margin following a 3km bike ride and a 1.25km run.

The previous year Betsy had finished 15th at the British Championships. As a result, she realised she needed to improve her swimming and running if she was to achieve her ambition of a podium finish in 2022.

For the last year, she has been swimming with the Portsmouth Northsea club at the Mountbatten Centre, under lead coach Richard Pointon.

This involves regular early morning swims, getting up just after 4am, often on a school day, and being in the pool at 5am for a two-hour session. Betsy does that three times a week and also swims on some evenings as well.

She also runs with the City of Portsmouth Athletics Club, guided by her coach, Claire East. Betsy trains with them two nights per week and has competed in numerous track and cross country events at regional and national level.

Betsy started training and competing in triathlon when she was seven years old. She joined Chapel Tristars, a junior club based in Hamble where she was taught the basics of the sport.

Betsy now competes for Meoncross Coastal Tristars, a club formed by her dad Tom North and another parent at her school in Stubbington.

She does her cycle training with her dad, sometimes joined by her elder sisters, around Daedalus airfield.

Keen to step up her cycle training, the aim is trying to fit that into an already busy programme!

Betsy’s next step is the Triathlon Youth Super Series in 2023.