Pembrokeshire Tristars recently took on the best young triathletes in Wales during the Welsh Triathlon Championships at Tonyrefail Leisure Centre.

In the Tristart category for eight- year-olds, Samuel Withers took gold and was crowned Welsh champion.

Steffan Williams just missed out on a medal, finishing fourth, but there was more success for the Tristars in the next race when Cara Watson took silver, also in the Tristar category.

Following Samuel's early success, Megan Withers made it a family double in the Tristar One category for nine and ten-year-olds taking gold and the Welsh championship.

Kate Matchett took silver, and Lowri Norkett, who was taking part in her first triathlon, was unfortunate to finish just outside the medals in fourth.

Lowri's sister, Elli, also taking part for the first time, finished in 11th place.

In the Male Tristar One category, Emyr Williams just finished outside the medals in fourth position with Todd Watson coming home in 9th place.

In the female Tristar Two category for 11 and 12-year-olds, Claire Fitz-Patrick Smith was the victim of a marshalling error, which resulted in her losing valuable time. Despite this setback, she fought back to finish in fifth position.

In the Male Tristar Two category Alex Matchett added to the Pembrokeshire Tristars success by taking silver, followed by Joe Lloyd in sixth, Luke Cornish in seventh and Tom Lloyd in 15th place.

The Tristar Three category for 13 and 14-year-0lds saw Jake Watson, finish in fifth position.

The final race of the day, in temperatures of almost 30 degrees, was the Youth Category for 15 and 16-year-olds, with Pembrokeshire's Luke Watson and Matt Brown hot favourites for podium positions.

Both Matt and Luke had very strong swims, with Matt just edging it onto the bike section closely followed by Luke in second place, with the remaining competitors nowhere to be seen.

The bike leg saw Matt open up a significant gap and by the time they entered the run and final leg it looked as if he'd done enough to take first place.

However a combination of cramp and a determined run by Luke saw Matt's lead cut, and when he suffered a second attack of cramp Luke was able to take advantage to take gold.

Matt bravely battled home in second place to take the fourth Pembrokeshire silver of the day.

The final haul of three gold and four silver medals was a very satisfactory total for the Tristars.

The group meet at Haverfordwest Sports Centre at 5.30pm every Friday and cater for all abilities. For further information visit www. pembrokeshire-tri.org.uk.