John claims Euro silver

The holiday island of Ibiza hosted the event, where John, from Burgh le Marsh, was representing Great Britain.

The Skegness Triathlon Club member qualified by winning the veterans’s age group at The Clumber Park Duathlon earlier this year.

The event consists of a 5k run followed by a 20k cycle, ending with another 2.5k run to the finish.

The frenetic start saw John lead the British world champion Mick Anglim through the first 5k in a respectable time of just over 22.mins.

Following a slow transition, where he was passed by the world and defending champion and the German champion Joachim Bernhardt, he then got out onto a very wet, warm yet quick bike course.

In the 20k race, averaging almost 23mph, he lost a few more seconds to Mick Anglim but did overtake and pull almost a minute back from Bernhardt.

Back in transition again and out onto the second run, John was at almost the exact same pace as Mick, which meant Mick ran home to retain his championship crown and the gold medal in 1 hr 9 mins.

John came home second to claim the silver medal in 1 hr 10 mins, almost 40 seconds ahead of Bernhardt, who took the bronze.

The GB team went on to be the most successful team of the weekend, with John thrilled by claiming the silver medal.

He said it was nice to get some reward for all the hard training.

He has now won a place in the GB team to go to the Duathlon AG World Championships in 2019 at Pontevedra, Spain.