Episode 38 featuring Agegroup multisport athlete Jan Fletcher

Send us Fan MailJan is a 45 years old female and her first triathlon was in 2014 (West Wight Triathlon, Isle of Wight), at the end of which she vowed never to do another one ever again! And then quickly changed her mind, wanting to do better and became hooked. She is  a member of Wight Tri, an Isle of Wight triathlon club. She works full time (shift work) and has an extremely supportive husband who encourages Jan and attends events with her where he can. She has always been keen to participate in all sports since she can remember but she does not have a background in any of the 3 triathlon disciplines, having previously been an avid hockey player until deciding to hang her boots up 7 years ago.  Jan has always been able to swim but never what she would call properly and about 7 years ago she decided to teach myself to swim ‘properly’ with her  head under the water. Prior to this she was never a keen swimmer and didn’t really like going out of her depth etc. Once she had  managed to a crack the front crawl Jan decided that there was nothing stopping her from giving a triathlon a ago and she signed up to her local event in September 2014, completing the bike course on a hybrid bike which kept throwing the chain off around the route. Jan completed the event, collapsed over the finish line and vowed never to do another triathlon again. But then her competitive side came out and she was hooked, wanting to improve. The rest is history as they say. Jan  would describe herself as a jack of all trades and master of none. She qualified to represent the Isle of Wight at the Island Games in Gotland in 2017. In 2018 she was encouraged by a fellow club member to compete in a GB age group qualifier in St Neots and she gained a roll down place which gave her a qualification for the European Triathlon Championships in Weert in 2019. Jan was so excited to get a GB triathlon suit with her name on it. She finished in 18th place in Weert and the week after that event she competed at Leeds, gaining a qualification for The World Champs in Canada 2020 and also went on to re-qualify for the European Championships 2020. Jan also went to my second Island games in Gibraltar in 2019, representing the Isle of Wight again. In 2021, she  has had a really productive season…. English National sprint triathlon champion in her age group, PSUK National Champion, re-qualified for the World standard distance Triathlon 2022 and European standard distance triathlon 2022. Jan has also just returned from the European Triathlon championships in Valencia where she took bronze medal (giving her a PQ for the sprint event in 2022 in Munich) in the sprint triathlon and the day afterwards she completed in the standard distance triathlon and finished in 4th place with a 10km PB. So all in all a successful season. Jan has signed up to complete a BTF level 2 coaching course, starting in 2022. she is a STA open water swim coach. Jan has  completely changed her nutrition this year and has taken on additional support around sport psychology, making massive changes to her performances. Support the show