Triathlete was 'very sick' in hospital after swimming in 'dirty' open water
A triathlete who travels the world to take part in races says making his dreams come true comes with serious risk after one event led to him being "very sick" in hospital.
Andrew Jones, from Carmarthen, takes part in various events, and has even earned a slot in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii this month.
But the triathlete said swimming in "dirty" open-water made him very unwell ahead of the event after he contracted Campylobacter — an infection caused by bacteria.
Triathlon Cymru said its Safer Blue Spaces project, which is the first of its kind, was now using small sampling devices on triathletes to test the water and provide reliable data on water quality in Wales.
Jones said contracting Campylobacter from polluted water was "pretty nasty".
"It made me very sick unfortunately. In the house on a Sunday evening, I felt really unwell," he said.
"My temperature went up, my heart rate went up, I was shaking uncontrollably and unfortunately went straight to A&E."
He added: "I was in just over a week before one of the biggest races of my life. So very bad timing.
"I was a little annoyed, to be honest, because I think we go into the water with confidence, knowing everything is great and that's a great place to swim... it made me think about swimming in that particular area again."
Triathlon Cymru hopes its Safer Blue Spaces project, in partnership with Swim Wales, Bangor University and Imperial College London, will be able to help.
To collect data for the project, some of the competitors from Barry's SWYD Sprint Triathlon in August were pulled to the side and small devices — about the size of a fifty-pence piece — were attached to the backs of their wetsuits.
The national governing body for triathlon in Wales said they are new sampling devices and used as part of a pioneering project funded by the insurance group Admiral.
Normally, race organisers test the water to see if it is safe for swimming. However, there are limitations to that type of sampling.
Samples are usually collected at just one or two locations shortly before the race, which means it does not provide detailed data.
These sampling devices follow the swimmers' exact route while they are in the water, thereby providing accurate information.
"For us as an organisation, knowing what's in our water is really important because we're putting athletes in the water," said Amy Jenner, Triathlon Cymru's head of development.
"Across Wales, we have roughly around 60 events a year, so we want to know what's in our water.
"So having the fund available to us to do all of the research and the testing allows us to then go back to the athletes, back to the event organisers, to National Resource Wales, Public Health Wales and say what the picture is with our waters in Wales."
Simon Webb, who organises the Barry SWYD Sprint Triathlon, said it was important that athletes could swim "without the risk of potentially getting ill".
Once the competitors have finished the swim, they come to the transition area, take off their wetsuits, and continue with the race.
The technical team then come along and cut off the sampling devices, ready to send to Bangor University.
Kate Herridge, a PhD student working on the project, said the next step was to "concentrate these water samples" and "find if any pathogens have attached themselves to the samplers".
"We're able to take them off, concentrate them and then detect them and see what's present within them."
Triathlon Cymru hopes that ,in the future, it'll be able to share this data with environmental agencies and water companies in order to improve knowledge of what's in the water, and take steps to improve the quality of seas, lakes and rivers.
