A Burnham-On-Sea family dubbed ‘Britain’s Fastest family’ by the national media is celebrating this week after four members competed for Great Britain at the World Triathlon Championships at the same time.
The Rogers are putting the Brownlee brothers in the shade as Martin, 50 and his daughters Charlotte, 22, and Tabby, 21, and son Oscar, 17, headed for the contest in Rotterdam this week.
They competed with top athletes from around the world, swimming 750 metres, running 5km and cycling 20km – and came away after a highly successful visit.
“Our congratulations go to the Rogers family for four fantastic performances at the World Triathlon Championships this week – all breaking into the top 25 in the world for their respective divisions,” said Sara Cox Conklin from Burnham Swim and Sports Academy, where Martin works.
“With over 3,500 athletes from around the globe racing, this was an incredible achievement.”
“Martin had a fantastic run (7th) to put him in 24th place; Charlotte was 19th; Tabitha was 14th and Oscar got an outstanding 6th place in the world.”
“Mum Alison was on hand to help with the logistics of getting the family to the start line – with four bikes packed and transported by plane, unpacked and re-built, this really was a truly remarkable accomplishment. Congratulations ‘Team Rogers’, this was absolutely brilliant!”
Martin, who works at Burnham’s Swim and Sports Academy, has competed for Team GB seven times and last year won the British Championships.
All three youngsters have been training for triathlons since they were young and have worked as lifeguards at the pool while pursuing sporting careers.
“They are all very talented, I’m so proud of them. We are all very competitive, we will be competing with the best in the world, but it actually brings us together,” Martin told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
He added that he has spoken with the organisation overseeing the sport to find out if a family has competed in this way before. “They said that having four members of the same family is quite unique and it could be the first time.”
The girls were in the same race and their father and brother were in different ones due to their age brackets.
Martin added: “I have been doing triathlons for 25 years and this was my seventh time competing for GB.”
“The kids have all followed in my footsteps. They are sport mad. We try and train together when we can. My wife, Alison, is the only one who doesn’t compete, but she’s in our support crew and is training to be a sports masseuse.”
