A paratriathlon champion and Newcastle teacher Mike Salisbury hopes to defend his title when the 2022 British Triathlon Grand Final comes to the North East this summer.
The Dame Allan’s School geography teacher and Assistant Head of Sixth Form, who competes internationally, welcomed the news that Sunderland will host the major triathlon event in August.
Mike won gold within the PTS5 classification at last year’s Grand Final, held at Mallory Park, Leicestershire, in September.
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He also came out on top at the British Paratriathlon Championships and represented Great Britain at the World Triathlon Para Cup in Portugal last winter.
This year’s Grand Final, at the end of the triathlon season, will bring together top UK athletes from the youth and junior, senior and Paratri British Triathlon Super Series to compete along the seafront of Sunderland.
Mike said: “This is a really high-profile event and I’m delighted it will be hosted in the North East, not least because I will be able to go to Sunderland and train in the run up to the Grand Final!
“This will give me the slight advantage of familiarising myself with Sunderland’s roads, and swimming in the sea there, so I’ll learn about the water conditions and just feel more comfortable in the environment.”
Mike, who was born with a congenital limb defect to his left arm, has trained throughout winter, but suffered a setback in January when knocked off his bike at Whitley Bay.
A fracture to his elbow meant he was unable to run, cycle or swim for almost four weeks.
He has recently been able to resume training in preparation for the British Triathlon Paratri Super Series ‘Duathlon Championships’ in Prestwold in April.
Mike competes within the PTS5 paratriathlon classification, for ambulant athletes with mild impairments.
He is ranked 29 th in the world in his category, and 2 nd in the UK behind George Peasgood, who took home silver in the men’s PTS5 triathlon final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
As well as hosting the Grand Final, Sunderland has also been earmarked to host a World Triathlon Championship Series event in 2023.
The announcement forms part of a partnership being actioned by British Triathlon and Sunderland City Council to increase opportunities around swim, bike, run in the area.
Chief Executive for Sunderland City Council, Patrick Melia, was very excited to be bringing the coveted events to Sunderland when the news broke at an official announcement at the Roker Hotel.
He said: "It's a great time for Sunderland, there's a lot of positive things happening in the city.
"Later this year on the weekend of the 20 and 21 August we're going to celebrate the elite athletes in terms of the British Triathlon of all ages, and in terms of para-athletes as well in Sunderland.
"It's going to be a great event where we have the best athletes from the UK in Sunderland demonstrating what we've just seen on the video - and that's just going to be really powerful for our people to see.
"Next year, on the same weekend we'll have an event that's part of the World Series - a Triathlon event. So it's fantastic that those two events are coming to Sunderland."
The British Triathlon Grand Final Super Sprint will take place in Sunderland over the weekend of August 20-21.
To find out more information, check out the British Triathlon's official website, here.
