Team New2tri Coaches

Supporting you from Start to Finish

All our members have access to our Team coaches, we have all 3 disciplines covered but also have a Team Bike Fit specialist, Strength & Conditioning coaches, a sports testing professional, nutritionists and a Team physio.

male swimming coach standing by the swim

Meet The Coaches

Sophie Marie Whittingham

Coach - Open Water Intermediate/Advanced

Sophie has over six years of competitive triathlete experience and has represented Great Britain at the European and World Age Group Championships for the last 5 years.She is a Level 2 Triathlon coach and Level 1 Swim Teacher. Open water Team sessions are held at Alderford lake, Whitchurch.

Sophie also runs swsportsperformance.co.uk

Harriet Ballantyne

Coach - Open Water Beginners

Harriet is a a qualified Open Water Swimming Coach through the STA specialising in beginners to open water making the transition from pool swimming, and skill improvement specific to open water environments. Harriet coaches alongside Sophie.

Dr Garry Palmer

Sports testing & Swim Analysis

Garry was fortunate enough to be tutored by Peter Keen (later to become the head of the British Cycling Performance Plan) and become involved in testing high level cyclists including the likes of Chris Boardman and Tony Doyle.

For his final year dissertation Garry used members of the Barcelona Olympics track cycling squad as his subjects! During this time Garry remained an active runner, posting a 32:02 10km time, and also was very active in triathlon, cycle road racing and time trialling.

Garry runs sportstest.co.uk

Nathan Wharton

Team Physio

Nathan graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2010 with a degree in Physiotherapy. Since graduating Nathan developed a passion for sports specific and movement-related conditions/injuries.

He has since gone on to complete specialised training in the assessment, treatment and diagnosis of musculoskeletal conditions/injuries. This includes motor control retraining of movement dysfunction through kinetic control and an MSc in Sports and Exercise Physiotherapy. Nathan is recognised as part of the global team of movement therapists who aim to improve pain and weakness through specific treatment and movement correction.

Nathan is Co-Founder and Chief Physio at nbphysiotherapy.co.uk

Jethro Mendola-Byatt

Coach - Strength & Conditioning

Jethro holds a Masters in Physiotherapy and has gained multiple years of experience working in the NHS and Private sector.

He has experience coaching strength and conditioning to Olympic and university level athletes at Robert Gordon University and the University of the West of England.

Jethro along with John run tridenthumanoptimisation.uk

John Psyllas

Coach - Strength & Conditioning

John is an accredited strength and conditioning coach with the UK Strength and Conditioning Association (UKSCA) and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Sport and Exercise Science from Robert Gordon University and a master’s degree in Strength and Conditioning from St. Mary’s University, London.

Lydia Dant

Team Bike Expert

Lydia has over 12 years experience in cycling across all disciplines. She currently races as a professional triathlete and uses her experience of going from Novice to Professional to help others with their bikes through Phoenix Evolution. With her breadth of experience in both triathlon and cycling she is able to support athletes to get the maximum out of their bike understanding that who this looks is different to every individual. No one person is the same so not every bike fit should look the same (and aero isn’t always everything)!

Our Coaches