CRICKLADE endurance athlete Emma-Kate Lidbury has added her voice to growing calls for more disciplines of triathlon to be included within the Olympics.

The sport only made its Games debut in Sydney 2000 and currently just one distance is available for athletes to compete in.

However, in addition to the standard Olympic distance, there is also the shorter sprint discipline and the longer hauls of half-ironman and ironman.

Lidbury herself competes on the fast-growing Ironman 70.3 Series, in which each race is a half-ironman, around 20km longer than the course athletes will tackle at London 2012 this summer.

And the former Adver reporter is hoping that her specialism, as well as other distances, will be part of the greatest show on earth in the near future.

“If you look at sports like swimming and cycling, you have several events within those, so it would be terrific to see several distances of triathlon become Olympic sports,” she said.

“They are already campaigning for a team event and I think that might happen in the near future, it might even go ahead at the next Commonwealth Games (in Glasgow in 2014).

“So there’s already scope there for it to broaden out, and to have an ironman or half-ironman would be great.”

Lidbury, who achieved top 10 finishes at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in 2010 and 2011, believes the London Games could help enlarge interest in the sport.

She continued: “Hopefully the success of the Olympics can provide a platform for triathlon and show how great it is, because it’s so new and far from the mainstream.

“It’s getting more and more mainstream with media coverage, but it’s still not really the norm to see it in the Telegraph or the Times.

“We had some great coverage on the BBC in the summer last year for the Hyde Park event, where the Olympic triathlon will be held.

“But it was only included for the first time in Sydney 2000, so it’s early days.”

Currently 32 years old, Lidbury has her fingers firmly crossed that her specialist distance will one day be included in the Games, with Rio 2016 the first possibility.

“Obviously I’d like half-ironman to become an Olympic sport sooner rather than later,” added Lidbury, whose next race is the 70.3 Mallorca on May 12.

“Endurance improves with age and most women racing are in their 30s, and you have a lot of women racing in their late 30s.

“My lifespan as an athlete, I’ve always said I will keep doing it as long as I enjoy it, but I see myself doing it for at least the next five years.”

  • EMMA-KATE Lidbury was interviewed by the Advertiser at the Royal Oak pub in Bishopstone, where she spoke about her career in the presence of guests and representatives from her sponsors, Old Town’s Morris Owen Chartered Accountants and telecoms firm Virtua, based in Hook. Lidbury is also sponsored by bike and triathlon retailer Wiggle.