Tarragona European Triathlon Championships

18 June 2026 - By Anita Grainger

Last weekend I competed at the European Triathlon Championships over in Tarragona, Spain. After setting off from a wet Stansted on Wednesday morning I arrived in sunny Spain. Tarragona is along the Catalonian coast South of Barcelona once a thriving Roman settlement the 2^nd century with an impressive amphitheatre and old town. Also soon to host stage 2 of the Tour de France. In the days leading up to the race I unpacked and built my bike, registered for the race, did course reccies, attended the team briefing and caught up with my tri buddies whilst trying to remain calm before checking our bikes in on the Saturday afternoon.

 

After not much sleep , as usual before a race, I set off down to transition early Sunday morning to do final gear prep and checks before our 8.30am race start. As expected, it was a non-wetsuit swim, this is never confirmed till 1 hour before the start. The swim was in the harbour past a number of superyachts including Steven Speilberg’s with the mele of the men’s wave behind in the last 500m, before heading off onto the 2 lap rolling bike course with a couple of technical climbs and descents and then onto the 4 lap scorchio run course round the marina in 29 degrees. The water stations every 1km were very welcome as were the hoses being sprayed on each lap, I got soaked which was lovely! Unfortunately, I came away with huge blisters on my toes which happens at times

 

This was an absolutely fantastic venue and I feel privileged to be able to race for team GB age group. I finished with in 16^th with a smile and kept my positive attitude throughout the race . Was I as fast as I wanted to be, are we ever? Nice solid performance with lots of room for improvement, most important I came away positive.

Times and splits below  (Swim 1.5km, Bike 40km, Run 10km)

Total : 03:06:17

Swim   00:32:42

T1          00:02:41

Bike     01:25:49

T2          00:02:35

Run       01:02:31

 

Anita