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Harry Leleu is the latest member of Team Profeet, and we’re excited that he joins us following a breakthrough year in his World Triathlon rankings. Harry is ranked just outside the top 100 in World Triathlon (Individual Olympic qualifying), and around sixth top in the UK.
But from a young age, Harry found enjoyment and a natural talent at many sports. Like many children, he attended weekly swimming lessons, and he discovered that he was pretty good at it. That was the beginning of his journey into triathlon…
A love of all sports
Encouraged by his parents, at a young age, Harry chose to participate in a range of sports beyond just swimming. As well as being in the first rugby team at school, he played tennis, and continued his athletics – inspired by England rugby player Jonny Wilkinson and the British tennis star, Andy Murray.
Aged eight, after completing swim lessons at his local leisure centre, he joined Arun Tridents Triathlon Club in Felpham. They encouraged him to join Chichester Runners, a competitive local run club, and the non-competitive Arun Swimmers. In hindsight, he thinks not joining a competitive swim club led to him not winning any junior competitions, but he believes this worked out better in the long term.
I think most coaches would have said, he needs to swim more, he needs to get better at swimming. Now I’m actually glad I didn’t do too much of that because you see so many athletes that are training, goodness knows how many hours a week aged 14/15/16. Then when they reach 18/19/20, they’re completely fed up and done with it. They’ve either lost motivation or been injured or goodness knows what.”
Inspired by the Brownlees
Harry admits that triathlon was just a hobby until he started getting towards the very last year of school and when he was making his university choice. Then, watching the Brownlee brothers compete in the triathlon at the 2012 London Olympic Games had a big impact on Harry.
I went to watch the 2012 Olympic Games in Hyde Park and watched those guys really, really tear it up and I was just starting to get into competitive triathlon. Yeah so that was a real inspiration then.”
Fired up from their performance, Harry chose Loughborough University to study Physics, so he could continue his training in their World-class sports facilities. It was here that his training really picked up. When doing a time-trial, he met the criteria to join their ‘Performance Squad’, a partnership between the University and British Triathlon that enabled him to train with a coach and other top athletes.
That was the moment when triathlon became more of a career aspiration rather than just a sport that I was good at and I enjoyed doing.”
Harry’s breakthrough
Although Harry is competing at World Cup level, he says the competition in the British field is fierce and can narrow his selection chances for entering a World Series event. However, last year he hit the ‘Top five placing’ selection criteria, managing a fourth place at a World Cup event in Tangier, Morocco.
Every single year I’ll see constant improvements, but they’ve all been quite small. So to then suddenly see it actually come through in a result was a massive confidence booster! So yeah, it finally justifies that the work you put in does actually come out at the end if you’re patient enough.”
My aim for this year is to race a World Series level event which is essentially when you’re racing the best in the world. Ideally, I’ll do the Hamburg World Series in July.”
Another British triathlete that Harry is very inspired by is Alex Yee. Alex is a year younger than Harry (who is 27), his friend and training partner, who he was living with in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics.
He’s a massive inspiration to all of the training group that we train with purely because you see the effort and the work that goes in from his side day in, day out. And then you see him go and get two Olympic medals in Tokyo and hopefully another few in Paris!”
Profeet visit will be ‘enlightening’!
He is currently in Portugal, at a triathlon training camp, but he flew over to the World Triathlon Indoor Cup event in Lievin, France where he finished 2nd in Final B Elite Men and 14th overall (2nd Brit).
Harry is very excited about visiting the Profeet 3D Lab as soon as he returns to the UK!
His ‘go-to’ shoes are mainly Asics because of their comfort and responsiveness, including his racing shoes that incorporate carbon rods. But, he’s excited to find out whether the results of his biomechanical analysis in the Profeet Run Lab could mean there is something even better.
Getting the right shoes I think from the 3D analysis for me is almost invaluable. Then I’ll know I can trust that what I’m wearing on my feet isn’t going to do me any harm and it’s actually going to do the opposite – hopefully even help my performance! It’ll be a sort of enlightenment!”
Next on Harry’s radar is the E World Triathlon Championships in London, a one-day intense racing event – “an indoor Super League run event at the London Aquatic Centre.”
To book an appointment for our high-tech marker-less 3D running analysis, call 020 7736 0046 or book online
OUR SERVICE IS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
Profeet’s services are by appointment only, please call or book online in advance