TROWBRIDGE triathlete Rachel Bown says that she joined a new London-based team to help her in her quest for a major international medal in 2012.

The 41-year-old, who teaches at Larkrise School and was racing for local club DBMax, will now compete under the banner of Roehampton Gate club RG Active, the club of her coach John Brame.

Bown also has a pair of new sponsors in Bournemouth-based bike shop Bike Workx UK, who have provided her with new road and time trial bikes, and bike box sponsors Sci-Con, who have given the Trowbridge triathlete a new state-of-the-art box.

“I don’t really plan to race as much locally this year as I’m looking towards the big races, so it seems like the right thing to do – when I go to competitions, my team will be ‘Bike Workx UK/RG Active’,” she said.

“I’ll still train with DBMax, who I had a great season with last year, and with Hot Chilli Tri Club but I’ll go to train with RG Active about once a month.

“They do a lot of their runs around Richmond Park and it’s a really good place to train.”

Bown claimed a seventh-placed finish at the ITU World Triathlon Championships in Beijing last September but as well as competing in this year’s World Championships in New Zealand, she will also take part in the European Championships, which take place in Isreal in April, for the first time.

Bown added: “The aim is to try and finish as the fastest British athlete in my age group at the Europeans.

“All of the top athletes at the World Championships have always been European, so I expect it to be really tough anyway – it’s going to be really hot and it’s a sea swim too.”