WHEN Seb Garry’s mate asked him to take part in a triathlon, he was filled with dread and didn’t want to do it.

“At first I thought, ‘no way’, but peer pressure and stuff made me do it. The manly instinct took over,” he told the Bucks Free Press.

So, in a wetsuit, borrowed from a friend, and on a bike he had to hire for the day, the Sir William Borlase’s schoolboy stood apprehensively on the start line waiting for the first discipline, the swim.

“I really didn’t want to do it, but as soon as I got out of the water, it was a different story. I loved it.”

Now, two years on, 16-year-old Seb will represent Great Britain in Chicago next month in the Under-20 World Triathlon Championships where he will be up against the cream of the crop.

He said: “It’s just amazing. It has all happened so quickly. I feel so privileged and proud to be going out there on such a big stage. I will be incredibly nervous before it starts but I will be giving it everything.

“I will be against people three years older than me but I enjoy being the underdog and I feel privileged to be racing three years younger than them because it makes me think what I could be like in three years.”

The age gap is summed up by the fact that Seb is due to start sixth form next month and that he still does a paper round. He earns £30 a week from his morning deliveries, money that he is saving to help pay for his trip to Chicago.

In a sport of skulduggery – where underhand tactics like grabbing hold of a competitor’s legs in the water or pulling the string on a rival’s wetsuit so that it fills up with water making it hard to swim – are commonplace, age and size is important. Seb, who turned his back on football because he wasn’t tall enough to be a goalkeeper, is therefore not expecting an easy ride on the world stage.

He said: “I’ve been kicked in the face many times and scratched. I just have to take it because I can’t give it back so much. I don’t mind though, it is all part of the sport and I quite like being the youngest; it’s like being the underdog.

The swim, which will be over 750 metres, is he believes, is his weakest discipline, with the 20 kilometre bike ride and then his strongest event the, 5k run, to follow.

He said: “I will normally catch up a bit on the bike and then on the run my eyeballs will be popping out as I nearly kill myself going for it.”

Since buying his own racing bike and coming under the tuition of leading international triathlon coach Perry Agass, the Marlow youngster’s results have really stood out.

He came second in the British Sprint Triathlon Championships in March, then came fourth in the European Aquathlon, which consists of just the swim and run, and he has now qualified to represent GB at both the European duathlon and triathlon championships next year.

And so to Chicago.

“It’s my first World Championship and I want to be competitive. I think getting on the podium may be a little bit unrealistic but I am going to go out there and give it my very best like I always do.

“I am very driven. I have come a long way in a very short time and I want to keep on improving and getting better. This is a great opportunity for me. I’m excited about it and I am determined to go out there and make the most of it."