Brothers battling against the odds

Two brothers with a passion for triathlon are hoping to make a name for themselves in the sport – despite having to battle against the odds..

Joe, 15 and Dan Levine, 13, who also play squash, hockey and take part in cross country, have been competing in triathlons for the past six years  

Initially from Surrey, but now living in London, they were inspired to take up the sport following the exploits of the Brownlee brothers medal-winning exploits at the 2012 London Olympics. Taking part in local triathlons that summer, Dan won his first race the following year. 2015 saw both boys enter   more races in London and the South East, before discovering the Junior Triathlon race series.

Moving to Surrey a year later, Dan won the South East region TriStar 2 age category (11-12), while Joe finished fourth in his TriStar 3 age category (13-14) series. 

Their dad Steven said: “We have always encouraged the boys to enjoy sport and cycled as a family from when they were barely more than three.  When we were told Joe was hypermobile, we increased his swimming and strengthening to try and combat the associated problems and strengthen his core. Right from the start, both boys have competed against the odds, Joe with his condition and Dan always competing against older kids.”

Switching to London in 2017 saw the siblings change triathlon regions, with Dan coming second in the London region TriStar 2 series and Joe fourth in the youth category (15-17). This year has seen Dan (now 13) win the London region TriStar 3 series (beating the lad who beat him in 2017), while Joe (now 15) finished third in the Youth category. The remainder of the year will see Dan representing London at the National Championships next weekend, with both also taking part in the Inter-Regional Duathlon in November between London and South East region. 

Proud of how sons, Steven added: “We live in an area without any competitive junior tri clubs and the major difficulty has been finding local sports clubs to help train them.  Even now, they’re up against kids who are part of a very structured and vigorous training regime.  They train hard, but much of their cycling is self-trained and they’re not part of a swim club. But they’ve kept going, all while excelling at school – even as their parents, we don’t know how they fit it all in.”

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