PHIL Anthony admits he had “a bit of a disaster” in the European Duathlon Championships in Sales, Greece on Saturday.

The Walmer 26-year-old, who was one of two Great Britain representatives in the elite competition, finished 26th - nine places worse than in last year’s championship - in a time of 1hr 54mins 25secs and said: “It was a bit of a disaster, and my time was way off my personal best .

I felt okay before I travelled out there but, on the day of the race, my legs felt really heavy in the warm up.

“I did the first 10k run in 32mins 02secs, which left me two-and-a-half minutes behind the leading pack, and then in the bike ride the guys I was riding with weren’t strong enough to give me any help as we tried to catch up with the leading group.

“So the final run was a painful experience, but these things happen in sport and I am going to sit down with my coach and see if we can work out what went wrong.”

Anthony, who is sponsored by Downland Cycles of Canterbury, now needs to re-focus in his bid to qualify for the world duathlon championships in September.