WATTS OCCURING

Delayed but unbowed, the SWYD Triathlon returned to Wales’ Barry Island in October for a fresh round of old-school racing. Going international and picnic-free was Matt Baird

- MATT BAIRD

Golden sands and crescent bays. Bright sunshine and biblical downpours. Compression wear, carbon frames and quizzical locals. An island invaded by a legion of Lycraclad triathletes in early October. Squint hard enough (and I mean squint pretty hard) and it could be the Big Island of Kona. Yes, I know it’s only Barry Island, but I like it, like it, yes, I do.

It’s soon before 7:30am, dawn is debating whether to break and the second biggest tidal range in the world awaits us at the start of 2021’s SWYD Triathlon. We’re called to the swim start line in groups of three athletes, the damp sand crunching beneath our bare feet. “Good to go,” calls a race marshal and it’s a sprint to the Severn Estuary. We’re hit by choppy waters and tenacious currents, and the field is soon a sprawling mess.

A distant inflatable marker rocks in the wind and threatens to float to Cardiff. The colossal construction work at the Hinkley Point power station glows across the channel in Somerset. Hopefully the luminescence isn’t radioactive or I may emerge from the water with 12 fingers, something admittedly which may help my catch phase on the second lap of the 1.5km swim leg…

THIS CHARMING TOWN

Even though I live just over an hour away on the train in Bristol, I’m ashamed to admit that I hadn’t been to Barry Island since a Butlin’s visit in the 1980s, with my only reference point to Barry that it provided the backdrop for Gavin & Stacey.