This season the London Junior Race Series has been extended to embrace the 17-19 age group for both young men and women. The 17-19 category will be fully aligned with the younger junior categories – same races and same series scoring. This is a long overdue development to keep our young athletes in the sport and encourage others to try it out.

The London Junior Series has a proven track record of encouraging young people into the sport of triathlon across the region. It has grown from strength to stength with many hundreds of athletes taking part in an array of events across London each season. Until now the year in which an athlete becomes 16 has been their last opportunity to compete against their peers in a dedicated race with a two year age group.

The transition to adult competitions with many hundreds of competitors, predominantly one or two decades older, is understandably daunting not to mention the significantly increased race distances. Many young triathletes have been put off making this transistion and left the sport leaving participation levels for the 17-19 age group very low indeed.

The National Super Series events provides an exciting race platform for the most able young triathletes in the country but there are many for whom this is a step too far but still wish to compete and either enjoy the sport they have grown up with or explore its potential for the first time.

By extending the Junior Series to embrace these young people and ease the transistion to the Senior Triathlon scene we hope to keep many more athletes in the sport.

Full details on the Junior Series page: http://www.triathlonengland.org/london/athletes/london_juniors/london_junior_series

17-19 year olds are also eligible to compete in the London Senior league where their results will contribute to their Club Team performance. There will however by no individual rankings for 17-19 year olds in the 2015 Senior Series.