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On our latest episode features Paul Haslam

Paul says "I was born raised in Chesterfield. My sporting background started as a child where I was very keen on football and later in my teens, cricket, tennis & hockey, amongst other sports. I struggled to get in the school football team until I was about 14 when I finally started to grow & bulk up a bit & found myself able to muscle my way about a bit more.
After school, I continued with sport at college, mainly squash and then found myself encouraged into joining the Dept water polo team as they were looking for new additions. Now that was an eye opener. My first game I only played the 2 nd half and I was absolutely knackered by the end, so much so, I slipped and slid from top to bottom on the stairs to the changing rooms. I thought squash was tough till I got involved in water polo – the toughest sport I’ve ever done.

After college I ended up working in the coal mining industry. My sporting life was mainly darts around that time. I later joined a Sunday League type football team and also found myself involved in the works cricket team.
Between the age of 28 and 58 any remotely sporting connections I had were limited to recreational activities with the kids such as mountain bike rides on trails, not roads.
Over the 30 years my weight had gradually risen from below 11 stone and 32” waist to almost 15 stone and a near 40” waist. Then out of the blue in August 2018, Karen announced to me that she was going to do something called “Couch to 5k”. What the hell is that, I thought. Well I soon found out as I was seconded to a support role, which basically meant I was doing it too. My initial response was to say to Karen that I’d probably run about 50 yards and collapse. 

By May 2019, Id lost about 4.5 stone in weight.
9th June 2019 finally arrived & that was the start of my triathlon pursuit. 

Southport Triathlon was only my 2nd Standard Triathlon and my first-ever qualifier.
And so, the GB Age Group experience was about to begin in 2022 eventually named as in a place called Olsztyn in Poland. Having submitted a sprint
result for European and World Triathlon events, I also qualified for Montreal World Sprint Tri  a as last gap spot for Munich Europeans Sprint Tri, which I had desperately wanted to do, for the trip to Munich, as city we came to fall in love with.
For Olsztyn in May 2022 I managed to finish a totally unexpected 2nd place in the 60-64 Age Group.

Since that very first event, I’ve gone on to do a total of 16 GB starts including mixed team relays, 4 events in 2022, 3 events in 2023 including another silver in the Europeans Standard Tri (converted to standard duathlon) and 9 events in 2024 including a silver in the
European Middle Distance Duahtlon in Alsdorf and 2 bronzes in the Europeans in Vichy.
As mentioned in the show we have been nominated 
Finalist in the Sports Podcast Awards 2025 please vote using the link below.

https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/shortlist-category/