Austin Healey to race Eton Dorney Triathlon
Rugby legend Austin Healey, who earned 51 England caps during his career, is to take part in the Leader Board team relay triathlon on 3 July at Eton Dorney in Berkshire and raise money for Sport Relief. He will be taking the bike leg, while two of his daughters will be taking on the swim and run legs.
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“The girls are very sporty and I reckon we will have a pretty good chance of finishing quite high up,” he says. “My daughters are quite competitive, and they are saying ‘Dad you had better not let us down on the bike’. If I could choose any sport for them to be of a high standard in it would be triathlon. I can see it being an even bigger sport in seven years when they are ready to compete.
The relay consists of six laps of the course, and each lap consists of a 200m swim leg, a 5.3km cycle leg and a 1.5km run leg.
Austin has always been a keen follower of triathlon and in the past he has competed in about five triathlons, including Blenheim, which he completed the sprint distance in about an hour.
However injuries on the rugby field left him in almost constant pain, and included a shoulder problem that has resulted with a spike instead of a ball in the shoulder socket, an arthritic knee, and bad back.
He was left frustrated trying everything he could, supplements, yoga, ginger tea and was left relying on painkillers.