14/06/2026
NTC’s Emma Broadhurst and Nathan Walker have been competing in the Europe age group triathlon championships, in Tarragona, Spain, over the weekend.
Our man Will Slater was there to cheer them on, and here is his race report.
I woke on Saturday morning full of nervous excitement.
Strangely not for myself, but for Emma (Broadhurst).
Another huge race for her.
A chance to build on the fantastic success achieved in 2025 at the European Championships with a 6th place finish in Istanbul.
Improving on this is something she deserves and is fully capable of achieving.
The swim involved something I am sure many had never seen before with a swim to reach the starting pontoon.
However, it was a great opportunity for the athletes to acclimatise themselves to the (nice and warm?) water.
A third-fastest age category swim split and a speedy T1 put Emma in a solid position behind favourite Naomi Reynolds going out into the bike.
On the run, alarm bells started to ring in my head.
Reynolds appeared.
Emma did not.
And the gap widened significantly.
I had a horrible feeling that something was amiss due to how strong Emma has been riding recently.
It wasn’t until I caught up with her (or she caught up with me) that I had discovered that Emma had taken a fall on the bike- resulting in her losing precious time.
This news came as a massive shock due to the utterly focused and composed nature shown by Emma, and also how good she was running off the bike.
This could easily have thrown a lot of people off, many would have thrown in the towel and called it a day, but Emma showed great mental fortitude and determination to keep going and push hard on the 5k run leg despite a very significant set back on the bike.
It also started to get very, very, hot at this point too - providing further proof of just how much grit was required to keep pushing to the end.
Emma came in 9th overall in her age group - a very good result considering the circumstances, and it makes you wonder what could have been?
In a sport riddled with uncertainty, this was a performance to be proud of!
• 30-35 women’s sprint age group result: swim 12:15, bike 38:51, run 22:51, total 1:17:11, 9th age group
After Sprint Saturday, it was time for Standard Sunday- and the way Nathan has been performing over this distance recently got myself, and others at home I’m sure, very excited indeed to see what this man could do at a championship race over Standard distance.
Although we should not judge a book by its cover, the start list did not provide any stand out names to pose a serious threat. This could be it!
We don’t call him The Shark for no reason and a textbook fast swim, and textbook fast T1, saw Nathan out on to the bike in a very good position.
He continued to look good on the bike too - not losing any time at all in the early stages.
It was at this time that it started to get hot, very hot.
Noticeably hotter than the day previously.
Out on to the run then, and the temperatures had well and truly skyrocketed by this point - adding an extra layer of pain on top of the customary battered legs.
It was a true war of attrition for all those scattered across the 10km run course!
Nathan finished 12th overall in the end.
Given the intense heat, this was definitely a performance to be proud of!
• 20-24 standard age group result: swim 22:49, bike 1:02:50, run 45:42, total 2:17:29, 12th age group
It was great to watch from the side of the road.
Nathan and Emma did NTC proud and deserve a lot of praise for their efforts!
It was really nice to see former member Lloyd Bebbington doing so well too!
