ASHLEY Hodgetts received some excellent news last week when he was informed of his selection for Great Britain next year.

Hodgetts, 27, will race in the European Triathlon Union’s Sprint Distance Triathlon European Championships in his age group for 25-29 year olds.

And the news could not have arrived at a more appropriate time as the electronic engineer at Bristol’s Abbey Wood facility will be marrying his fiancé Georgia de Lotz at the end of the month.

Hodgetts had been tinkering with triathlon for a few years since moving to Thornbury from Plymouth but only really decided to take it seriously 12 months ago.

He said: “I thought I would give it a proper crack and made a plan to try and qualify for these (European) races next summer.

“I was doing ok on some of the local races and so I just took it from there.”

He had ran with Thornbury Running Club when arriving in the area just to meet people and be social and added: “I wanted to try and test the water, be competitive and become a European and world champion.”

He worked with coach Ian Blackie-Taylor over the year and set about trying to qualify for the Europeans.

“The qualifiers were a shock to the system,” said Hodgetts. “There were two qualifiers that I went to. In one, I came tenth or 11th and in the second, I came in fifth.”

Hodgetts has a personal best over the sprint distance, that involves a 750m swim, a twenty kilometre bike rind and a five kilometre run, of one hour 03.07mins but has a target of getting under an hour for it.

The European Championships will take place on June 25 next year. The triathlon season is winding down somewhat now and Hodgetts will have ‘some fun’ riding his bike or going on a jog with Thornbury Running Club for a few months.

But then it is down to serious winter training and preparation for his big day.

He added: “There will be some warm-up events that I will go to. It is all about practice and getting comfortable and competitive. Hopefully, I will be going to Cyprus for a training camp and a race to build my fitness in April”

That is all to ensure that Hodgetts gives the European Championships his best shot. “I would love to medal there but I am not expecting one. I would be happy with myself if I did a top twenty finish and I would be very pleased with top ten. Any medal position, though, would be brilliant.”

He does not think, though, that a greater leap to the Olympic distance for England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games or the Tokyo Olympics is likely.