2008 could hardly have gone better for triathlete, Kirsty McWilliam.  Last month she won the Junior World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver, Canada, and she was a silver medallist in May’s European Junior Triathlon Championships.

 “It was great to get a medal at the Europeans, but to win gold at the Worlds is totally awesome,” said the East Dunbartonshire teenager, with relish.

“This was my second year in the Worlds and I knew what to expect, I was far more relaxed.  The Worlds and Europeans were my season so I’ve exceeded all expectations.”

Her latest medal tally adds to her 2007 European Junior Championships bronze medal, 2006 British Youth Triathlon and Duathlon titles and 2005 European Team Relay Championships gold medal. And all this since starting the sport just four years ago.

Eighteen year old Kirsty from Milton on Campsie is a former swimmer who was good enough to win the bronze medal for the 50 metres back-crawl at the Scottish schools championships as a 12 year old.

 “When I was 13 a friend of mine persuaded me to do a triathlon,” she recalls.  “It was the Scottish Championships, three of us were racing and I came third. 

“I swam for Scotia at the time and I was starting to lose interest in swimming but as soon as I did triathlon I enjoyed it so much more. It was nice to get out and train rather than swim up and down a pool the whole time.”

Replacing the congested swimming lanes with the open spaces of the Campsie Fells rejuvenated Kirsty, who had already done some cross country running alongside her swimming career.  That just left the bike.  At first she was not a natural on the bike but this leg of the tripod has since become her strongest.

“I was rubbish technically at cycling and I wasn’t exactly strong,” she recalls.  “I’d never ridden a road bike before, and I found that after a mountain bike it was so much more responsive.  The tires were a lot thinner which was quite scary.

“The first thing I got taught was how to ride a bike rather than concentrate on getting quicker.  Now my cycling has come on a lot and it’s my strongest discipline.”

Kirsty is known for her searing two-wheeled attacks on the hills.  In Vancouver after exiting the swim 20 seconds down and in third place she bridged a gap on the 20km cycle leg to put her in front for the start of the run.  By the halfway stage of the 5km she’d built a 39 second lead over the next athlete, a gap she maintained until crossing the finishing line in a total time of one hour, four minutes and five seconds.

The title was ample reward the McWilliam camp, John Dargie, her coach for the past four years and the supporting cast of the West of Scotland Institute of Sport, who in particular have been analysing the biomechanics of her three techniques with video analysis.  She is Lottery funded and receives invaluable equipment from British Triathlon.

“John has been my coach since I started and has been a huge help,” she said.  “I never realised how tactical triathlon was until I had my first European event and he is really handy with tactics and what I should be doing in a race.

“The West of Scotland Institute has been a great help.  I’m doing a programme where they film me, looking at different aspects of my technique to find things we can improve on.  They look for the small things that really help me go quicker.  I’ve just had another video session with them and at the end of this month when we meet up they’ll be able to identify more things that can make a big difference.”

A fringe benefit of grappling daily with the Scottish weather is the acclimatisation it gave her in an equally cold and wet Canada. “The weather in Vancouver was miserable and a lot of other athletes got worked up about it but I’m used to that kind of thing so it didn’t phase me,” she said.

“Looking out of the window now it’s absolutely pouring, but training here gives you advantages because it makes you tough. For the past three years I’ve been doing morning runs before school, going out and coming back in the pitch black.”

With school now behind her and a place at Stirling University to study Biology secured, it will be all change in the next few months.  But at least at Stirling, the hotbed of Scottish triathlon, there will be a larger pool of training partners and greater flexibility to plan her schedule.

“I chose to do Biology rather than anything sporty because I love it; it was the only subject I did at school this year,” she said.  “Stirling is the national performance centre for triathlon, there are some good triathletes there and we’ve got a new coach, Chris Volley, who is moving up from Bath who will bring new faces in and we’ll get a really good squad.”

The main season is effectively over for Kirsty, who will test herself in Olympic distance events this summer, a longer distance which she will need to adapt to if she is to realise her ultimate aim of competing in the 2012 and 2014 Games. 

“Technically I’ve still got a year left of Sprints because I’m still a junior next year and I will automatically qualify for the World Champs on the Gold Coast, Australia -  we might eventually get sun,” she said.  “I’m having down time until the end of this month, then my training will change to be more power based, a lot shorter and faster, and hopefully I‘ll get more races and experience.”

All are stepping stones towards her ultimate goal of excelling at the Olympic distance events in a major Games, and the passion she has is obvious.

“Triathlon has the challenge of having three events and you can never get bored because you’ve always got something you can work on,” she says with growing enthusiasm. 

“You’re outdoors all the time, which makes a big difference; there’s just so much variation, so much going on...and winning certainly helps!”

RE-J
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