Meet Callum Hughes, winner of the 2024 Newbury Triathlon

Local athlete Callum Hughes took victory in the 2024 Newbury Triathlon earlier this month.

Finishing with a time of 52:56.2, Hughes took victory by a margin of over four minutes, representing Tri2o Triathlon Club and VeloClinic in the aged 40-59 category.

He discussed the race and his athletic background, before confirming his aim to repeat his success next year.

“I’ve been doing triathlon for around seventeen years now”, he said

“I started off with sprint and then ended up getting coaxed into longer distance by racing with friends.

“I’ve been to a couple of World Championships for middle distance triathlon in 2014 and 2015 and I represented Team GB for European sprint triathlon in 2011.”

When he’s not competing, Hughes is busy running VeloClinic, which offers bike fitting and coaching services to cyclists and triathletes, based in a small studio up at Greenham Common Industrial Estate.

Thanks to his racing pedigree, Hughes knew he would be a contender, but says he faced a different kind of pressure competing in his home event.

“I had never raced the Newbury sprint triathlon”, he explained.

“I've always just been a spectator and cheered my friends on.

“It was only on the morning of the race, my wife said ‘you're probably nervous because you've got to win haven’t you?’.

“I wasn't nervous until she said that!”, he joked.

“But I sort of just did it for fun and to see what happens, and we always want to compare ourselves to our peers, don't we?

“So there's a bit of friendly competition.”

This competition is what spurred Hughes on, as he raced to the front of the field.

“When I got on the bike, I was trying to think of, will I be as quick as my friends?

“It's such a time trial that you don't know where you are, you just have to do your best.”

As he approached the finish line, Hughes enjoyed a feeling which has become familiar over the years, yet never gets old.

“With 400 metres to go, you're full of elation. You think ‘I'm so glad I've given it my everything’.

“But then my wife was running alongside me with sandals on saying, ‘you've got to beat 57!’.

“That’s what my friend George Westall had done in his category and was currently leading overall.

“I had gone as fast as possible, buried myself. It was pure elation, the finish line was just there.

“A couple of friends came out and cheered, and it's really good to see about 150 people cheering everybody on the finish line.

“I would love to do it again next year, because I'm sure it'll be a different course, although some people did jokingly say ‘don’t come back!’”

There’s no rest for Hughes, as he moves straight on to an Iron Man race in Wales this week. More details on VeloClinic can be found at veloclinic.co.uk