Published 11 April 2016

The IQL UK Lifeguard Triathlon is the UK’s biggest lifeguard competition and a great way to motivate your staff to raise their standards and see how they compare with hundreds of their colleagues.

The competition will be taking place throughout May this year, with the assessments conducted at your own pool, by your own trainer assessors. You simply have to use the assessment forms provided and submit your results by 31 May.

The triathlon consists of three key elements taken from the NPLQ;

• Swim – the two time swims in the NPLQ assessment
• Theory – a 42 question theory paper based on the content of the  Lifeguard manual
• CPR – Adult and Child/ Infant CPR tests 

Scores are combined to give a total out of 100. Of the 6,425 lifeguards that have taken part over the past 10 years, only 2 have managed to score full marks; Adam Frost from Knutsford Leisure Centre in 2014 and Paul Brooks from Bedworth Leisure Centre in 2013.

Results are compiled into separate league tables for male and female participants as well as facility scores, which are calculated by averaging their top 4 individual results.

Reigning champions, The Guildford Spectrum, have taken part every year and also won the title in 2012.

As well as celebrating the overall winners though, we strongly encourage you to use the triathlon to celebrate your own winners and reward those lifeguards who train hard, read their manuals and push their skills ever higher.

It’s not just for the youngsters either! We had 5 participants aged over 60 last year and their average CPR score was higher than any other age group. It was the lifeguards aged 51-60 who produced the highest average score in the theory section as well.

Don’t miss out on this affordable, accessible opportunity to motivate, reward and benchmark your lifeguards.