Fleetwood Nautical Campus’s Adam to represent GB in Triathlon in Valencia

Fleetwood Nautical Campus colleague Adam Diver is set to represent Great Britain at the Europe Triathlon Championship in Valencia on Sunday in an Olympic distance triathlon, which is a 1500m swim, a 40k bike ride and a 10k run.

Adam has always been a swimmer; from age 7 he was a member of Fleetwood Swimming Club. He went on to join the army and about 15 years ago, while still in the army, he got into running and cycling. One of his colleagues suggested he try triathlon so he could put the three disciplines together so, always up for a challenge, Adam gave it a go, taking part in a couple of army triathlons initially, just to see if he enjoyed it.  Adam’s swimming background would prove very valuable, as swimming is the discipline within the sport that a lot of people find most difficult.  He soon started adding civilian events to his calendar wherever he was based in the world, including Cyprus, Germany and Canada.  At the same time, he began to invest in better equipment to enhance his performances.

As his times improved, Adam started to look at what times would be required to be called up to the GB squad and started to challenge himself every year to improve his times. At the same time, he improved his nutrition and adopted more of a professional approach, to enhance his chances of a GB call up.

Around five years ago, Adam went up for selection for the GB squad but wasn’t selected.  Demonstrating resilience, Adam put himself forward again the following year, and again didn’t make the cut.  At that point, he made it his mission. Having just missed out on selection, Adam knew he wasn’t far short of what was required and started looking at the way he trained and how he could maximise his times.  People were then starting to recognise what he’d been achieving, so, demonstrating huge amounts of persistence and perseverance, he went up for selection for the third time and this time was successful.   

Adam fits his training and competitions around his family and work commitments; he has a wife and two children, Dexter, 12 and Florence, 7 and has a dual role at Fleetwood as a progress tutor in our Maritime division and a tutor in our Offshore division.  He can be spotted out training around Fleetwood and Over Wyre early in the morning and later in the evening and in the run up to competitions, trains three times a day.  His family are very supportive and understand that, particularly in the two weeks before a competition, he needs to focus closely on his training and nutrition and allow him the space and time to do this.

In his spare time (though we aren't sure how he has any!), Adam runs a free running club in Fleetwood which caters for all levels of ability.

Having completed all the admin involved with Covid testing and flying, Adam heads off to Valencia this week for the competition on Sunday.

Good luck from all your colleagues at Fleetwood Adam - we’ll be rooting for you!

We’ll follow up with Adam to see how he did and hear about his experiences in Valencia when he’s back next week.  Check back to find out!