This weekend’s Championships in Weyer will be twice as exciting for the Freeman family as twin brother and sister, Dave and Jo Freeman will compete against each other and the rest of their teammates for a place on the podium.
 

For Dave, an Investment Consultant intern, and Jo, a physiotherapist, this will be their first experience of racing in a duathlon at international level and they are hoping to deliver a fast performance and bring home a medal around their necks. They have both recently started taking duathlons and triathlons more seriously; Jo competed in her first triathlon last year and this is Dave’s first season and both have been successful in several smaller races leading up to their qualification for Weyer.
 

Jo’s preparation has been going well commenting: “Since it is my first event I am not really sure what the competition will be like.  My training has improved a lot since the qualification event when I was struggling with injury, so I am hoping to be a few minutes faster and just want to do as well as I can.”
 

Dave added: “Since qualifying I have had my finals at university and have then been doing an internship in London, so I have not had as much time to train as I would like. Having said that, I am happy with the training that I have done so will be aiming to be the first Brit.”
 

For Jo, triathlon racing may well be on the horizon after finishing 10th in her age-group at the British Triathlon Championships in Liverpool and she is hoping to convert that into a qualification for the 2015 ETU Standard Distance Triathlon European Championships in Geneva. 
 

Dave, however, is keeping out of the water commenting: “As I sink faster than I can swim, I think it’s best if I stick to duathlons. I will definitely try to qualify for the Europeans next year as well as the World Championships in Australia.”
 

 “We started off running together and competing against each other, which helped to spur each other on. Dave then raced cross country at county level before taking up competitive cycling at 15. This motivated me to get into cycling too, and Dave initially helped me to start road cycling. This was only two years ago, but since then I have loved it,” said Jo.
 

“We have always been competitive against each other. In our house, everything is a race.  I think because we are twins we have always had that competition, at home, at school and in sport. Despite this we still get on incredibly well and always want each other to do as well as possible”, continued Jo. 

Let’s hope that this competitive nature brings home two medals for the Freeman family and the Great Britain Age-Group Team.
 

Glyn Bevans is the Team Manager for the event and added: “Over 700 of the best athletes from all over Europe will descend on the Austrian town of Weyer this weekend to compete for honours at the ETU Powerman Duathlon Championships. 

 

“The Championships will be held on Sunday 24th August, starting at 11:00am (men) and 11:05am (women) Central European Time (CET). The course begins with 10km run followed by a 42km bike ride through scenic countryside on a fast, smooth road surface (3 laps of 14km) with a final 5km run to complete the race.
 

“With Weyer town centre being given over to the event, an enthusiastic and vibrant atmosphere is assured for the Great Britain Age-Group Team and I can’t wait for the action to begin.”

 

Alongside the age-groupers, elite GB duathletes will also be in action. In the senior races, Phil Wylie, Danny Russell and Katie Hewison will all compete. In the junior races, Richard Allen and George Goodwin will race as will Georgina Schwiening in the U23 event,