Para-triathlon star Salisbury on 'special' return to former home Swansea

Michael Salisbury was back in the city he studied in to make more happy memories, this time at the Volvo 2022 World Triathlon Para Series Swansea, writes Milly McEvoy.

The 35-year-old schoolteacher finish ninth in the men’s PTS5 category to match the result from last month’s Volvo 2022 WTPS event in Montreal.

The Newcastle resident was inspired by his university friends to take up triathlon but is still a newcomer to the sport entering his first race in 2020.

“It’s a special event for me because I went to university in Swansea, so it's been great from back. It's full circle,” he said.

“I've came down here last year for another event in Llanelli, but since I left, I haven’t really been back or spent much time here.

“So, it was great racing in the city that I spent four years in and really enjoyed it. I used to do a lot of surfing here, so I’m kind of used to the salty Swansea water.

“It's just been amazing to see the change in the city and cycling down some of those roads.”

Salisbury’s time of 01:02:40 saw him safely inside the top ten as his time for the 5km run of 16.42 was the second fastest of the race.

George Peasgood was the top Brit in action, claiming silver behind the winner Stefan Daniel of Canada as Filipe Marques completed the podium.

“[I got introduced to triathlon by] Uni friends. We used to go surfing together on go on surfing holidays. And then they started doing triathlons.

So, I realised that if I want to stay friends with them, I will have to do triathlon as well. And I kind of dabbled in it a little bit and then one of them twisted my arm into signing up for a middle-distance triathlon event.

“I did all the training in lockdown. I love the training side of it, I didn't think I’d love the structure which I did.

“And then through looking on the British Triathlon website I found out about the talent ID stuff and put my name forward for that.”

The Volvo 2022 World Triathlon Para Series Swansea - Britain's first ever standalone World Triathlon Para Series event - headlined a week-long para sport festival in the Welsh city, which also included the first ever International Paratriathlon Conference. Interested in getting involved in paratriathlon? Visit the get involved page on britishtriathlon.org