COMPETING with the best athlete in the world for a spot in your national team is a tough enough challenge; competing with two of the best is even tougher but that is exactly the task facing the Scottish triathlete Marc Austin.
The 21-year-old from Glasgow is up against Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, the remarkable brothers who won gold and bronze at London 2012 and who are both former World Champions.
However, this week, Austin has a brief respite from the challenge that the Brownlees present when takes part in the Under-23 World Championships in Chicago where he will attempt to go one better than the silver medal that he won last year.
His ambitions have been tempered somewhat by less than ideal preparation but second place at the European Under-23 Championships in July and a top-10 finish in last month’s senior World Cup event in Hungary illustrates his ability.
“It’s been a hard year because of injury and illness but I’m feeling OK now,” he says. “It’s not been the preparation that I would have wanted but that happens sometimes and you just need to get on with it so I’ll go to the worlds and give it my very best shot.
"Ideally I’d be going for a win and that’s definitely not off the cards but I just don’t know how I’ll feel. I’ve done it before, though, so I’m confident that I can hopefully do it again.”
Austin made his mark on the senior scene at Glasgow 2014 when, after a strong swim, he was part of a three-man breakaway on the bike with the Brownlees. It was a spectacular effort even though, ultimately, the young Scot was swallowed up by the chasing pack before finishing 22nd.
It was an inspiring experience for the Stirling-based athlete. “It was really great to be at the front of that race for a while,” he says. “I always knew the Brownlees were good but I don’t think I fully realised until then quite good they were. It was an eye-opener but the whole experience was great and it gave me real motivation to get to another major Games.”
The benefit of the Brownlees being British is that Austin occasionally trains with the best triathletes in the world. Working with Olympic champion Alistair in Leeds for a week gave the Scot an insight into what is required to get to the top.
“They don’t do anything very different from everyone else, they just do a lot of it and train very hard,” says Austin. “It was good to see that because it shows they aren't super-human. They just work really hard and it makes you think that other people can get up there as well if you put the hours in.”
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