PETER Cusick is relishing the challenge of a big year of international competition after clinching national glory at last weekend’s British Age Group Duathlon Championships in Nottinghamshire.

The 49-year-old won silver in the 44-49 age category at Emberton Country Park last October and in the 2015 edition five months later, Chippenham’s Cusick took gold in his first outing in the 50-54 division, completing his 10km run, 40km cycle and subsequent 5km run in 2:04:22.

Cusick, who wears the colours of Chippenham Tri Club, a subsidiary of Chippenham Harriers and Chippenham Wheelers, is now preparing to don a Great Britain race suit for the European Championships, in Alcobendas, Spain, on April 26, before October’s World Championships in Adelaide.

“It’s intriguing to see how I’m going to get on,” said Cusick, who qualified for the Worlds at the Dambuster Triathlon earlier this month and also earned a berth at the 2016 Europeans as a result of his British Championships success yesterday.

“When you go to these international competitions, you come up against all of the best athletes from those countries because they don’t have to travel far – there’ll probably be some of the best Spanish guys at the Europeans and some of the top Australians in Adelaide.

“Great Britain is one of the power nations in duathlon and we always do very well on the international stage but there are some tough nuts to crack out there, like Germany, France, Spain and Portugal.

“It’s going to be difficult but I’d be really happy with a top-10 finish at the Europeans.”

Cusick’s British success last weekend came in his third stab at the national competition, the Wiltshire age group champion making a blistering start to life in the 50-54 age group.

He said: “It was quite difficult because I competed on a trials bike with a disc wheel and that made it hard because it was quite windy. I came out of the second transition in second place and I just had to sprint the last 5k to get in front – I did it though and that was great.”