Hastings sisters star at European Championships

Josephine Edmunds and Nicole Edmunds at the European Duathlon Championships in Spain.

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Twin sisters from Hastings achieved top five finishes at the European Duathlon Championships.

Nicole Edmunds finished fourth and Josephine Edmunds fifth while representing Great Britain in the 16-19 years age group in Soria, Spain, last weekend.

Nicole completed the 5k run, 20k bike and 2.5k run in a time of 1:19:36 and Josephine crossed the line in 1:20:39. They were close behind the first three finishers, all of whom were Spanish.

The twins came in together at the end of the first run, Josephine was slightly ahead after the bike leg, but Nicole got through transition quicker and went on to finish ahead of her sister.

Both girls are 18-years-old and attend Claremont Senior School (they’ve studied at Claremont since they were two). They qualified for the European Championships at the Bedford Duathlon last October.

The twins do most of their training at Bodyworks XTC in Eastbourne under coach Sarah Coope and they also do running training with Peter Baker at Hastings Athletic Club. He has also taken on their cycling training.

The family’s sporting talent isn’t just confined to Nicole and Josephine, though, because their older sister, Danielle, is making waves on the rowing scene.

Danielle raced at the British University Championships last weekend and won her third Oxford Blue as their lightweight eight became university champions.

The 21-year-old also recently got to the final stages of trials for the GB under-23 team at Caversham in her single. The trials process got underway last October, and consisted of a number of 2k and 5k erg tests, as well as water time trials. Danielle got a lot further than she expected by making the final part of selection.

Following on from a first in her undergraduate degree in biological sciences (from Oxford), Danielle is in her first year of a fully funded PhD at Oxford studying interdisciplinary biosciences.

She initially attended Claremont Prep School and then Battle Abbey School, and hadn’t rowed before going to Oxford. Danielle also represented GB universities in a four last summer and won a bronze medal.

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