PEASGOOD HOPES TO BE GUIDED TO TOKYO GOLD

Fife triathlete Alison Peasgood has adjusted to the rough and tumble in a career that has already brought one Paralympic medal – and may earn another tonight.

The 33-year-old will be closely tied to her guide Nikki Bartlett when they take the plunge in Tokyo and again on the run, with a bike on a tandem in between.

“I use a really short tether, so that even if you get pulled slightly apart from each other, you can immediately feel where your guide is again,” said Peasgood, who was a silver medallist in the PT5 category in Rio five years ago,

“But it is just practise. On the tandem especially, the more you ride it, the more confident you are that you can swing it round a corner really quickly.

“Because Nikki knows how I’m going to respond. And I know how she’s going to take the corner.”

A good guide is hard to find. To train as well, the Rio 2016 silver medallist declares. In Brazil, she was linked to her fellow Scot Hazel Macleod whose decision to start a family saw Bartlett recruited as a replacement.

Macleod will be in opposition five years on, as guide to British colleague Melissa Reid.

“So it worked out well,” Peasgood added.

Husband Jack was once a guide for his brother George, also on the British team, but whose day job is as the pathways coach for Triathlon Scotland.

During lockdown, the couple became closer for longer still, allowing Peasgood to keep training while Bartlett was kept at a distance.

“There was a point that we were stuck completely indoors, allowed to go out once a day,” he said.

“So I could go out and run with my husband as a guide, because he was my household.

“But then, I had a nasty bike crash. And so I was forced to be on the turbo for months and months.

“It has actually made me stronger. So that’s a silver lining. Mentally, it was way more challenging than riding fast in the tandem.”