Newcastle teacher wins British Paratriathlon Championship title for second year in a row

A Newcastle para-triathlete is celebrating a gold medal at the British Paratriathlon Championship for the second year in a row.

Mike Salisbury, who was born with a congenital limb defect to his left arm, successfully defended his title at the event in Eton Dorney, Buckinghamshire - racing in the men's PTS5 classification and finishing first with a time of 59:52. The victory is all the more impressive as Mike had to pull out of a paratriathlon event in Spain after contracting Covid-19 last month.

Yet last week, he travelled to Montreal in Canada, placing 9th in the World Triathlon Para Series. Ranked 2nd in the UK and 20th in the world in his classification, Mike has a busy schedule of competitions this summer, due to having time off from his role as geography teacher and assistant head of sixth form at Dame Allan's Schools in Fenham.

Of his victory at the weekend, Mike said: "It is the first time I've gone under an hour, and I raced almost four minutes faster than in 2021, so I'm quite satisfied with the progress over the year. I felt a lot stronger than in Montreal and I'm looking forward to getting a few good weeks of training in before the World Series event in Swansea."

And it certainly made up for having to pull out of the event in Northern Spain last month, though he says support from his pupils also helped, adding: " Falling ill with Covid did set me back in June and forced me to miss a competition in A Coruña. I’ve had some fantastic support from pupils, which has really buoyed me both when competing and during training sessions around Newcastle, and I’m grateful to all those who have followed my triathlon journey over the last two years."

Mike entered his first British para-triathlon in September 2020 and