Lesbury athletes Emilia and Finley Waugh come home with individual silver and team bronze medals after competing in the British Triathlon Championships

The Alncom Alnwick Dolphins athletes and DCHS pupils have had an incredible season, between them winning 12 out of 14 races in the build-up to the season-ending championships, including qualifying as number one seeds for the North East team.

In the individual races on Saturday, they both raced aggressively to win in the semi-finals. Ultimately, after incredible lifetime performances, they both took silver medals in the finals.

Emilia, 14, placed second to Summer Smith, who is a generational talent, recently going to second on the UK All Time list for 3,000m (U15 females), a list that includes multiple Olympians. It was a phenomenal performance.

On Sunday they raced on leg 2 (Finley) and 3 (Emilia) for the North East A relay team. Finley was tagged in with the team in 12th place. By the time he was tagging in his sister he’d brought the team up to fifth, gaining seven places with a phenomenal leg.

Emilia was launched in beside the girls she’d battled with the day before and brought the team up again to fourth. Tagging in the final team member, the team moved up again to third.

Finley,12, has only lost once all year, in the British championship final.

Noting her performance, British triathlon invited Emilia to race again in the youth and junior relay with athletes up to five years older than her. Emilia performed incredibly and shows huge promise for 2026.

Alncom Alnwick Dolphins head coach Katy Batley said: “This is absolutely brilliant. Both fantastically talented and committed young athletes. They truly deserve it.”

“These are absolutely incredible achievements! They are such an inspiration,” said James Wilson, the co-head teacher of DCHS.

Mum Helen said: “We can’t quite believe it. We feel incredibly lucky.

“Thank you to the huge list of people who have helped to make this possible.”