TWO members of Team Deane Triathlon Club have been selected to represent Great Britain at European championship events.

Matt Dewhurst has been picked for the Almere-Amsterdam Challenge Long Distance European Triathlon Championships in Holland in September.

Marko Mather will be in action earlier in the European Triathlon Championships in Kitzbühel, Austria in June.

Both events are organised by the European Triathlon Union (ETU) with Dewhurst’s event believed to be the oldest triathlon in the world after Hawaii.

The Austria event is a standard distance triathlon while the event Dewhurst is set to take part in is over a full Ironman distance.

The 25-year-old from Little Lever will be one of 100 triathletes from Great Britain taking part, although he says his presence at the event will be dependant upon securing funding.

“I’m very proud to have the opportunity to represent my country in such a great event and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Dewhurst.

“But it’s self-funded and quite expensive. You’re talking at least a grand for the flights, accommodation, race entry etc so I’m trying to see if anyone would want to help sponsor me.

“I don’t want to miss out on it so I’ve been in touch with a couple of companies and I’ve started a crowd funding page. If anyone is interested in helping they can email me at mdewhurst@live.co.uk.”

The former Little Lever High School pupil earned selected for his performance at the Ironman UK in Bolton last year, the only Ironman he has done.

“I did the Bolton Ironman and the Dubai Half Ironman in January,” he said.

“You apply to be selected for Amsterdam. You send your result from the UK Ironman and you have to be within a certain percentage of a time in your age group to be considered.

“I’m in the 25-29 age group and did the Bolton Ironman in 11 hours 30 minutes.

“It’s done in age groups and each age group has its own time that you have to be within a certain percentage of. Then they pick the best times.

“They picked the best 10 in our age group but there’ll be about 100 going from Great Britain overall. Hopefully it will all work out and I can go because I’d be proud to represent Team Deane there.

“I always race for Team Deane, I’m pretty proud of where I come from and I always like to wear the club vest.”

A spokesperson for Team Deane said: “Both Matt and Marko work so hard and deserve the recognition.

“We are all so excited and proud that they will be representing GB and Team Deane on an international level.”