In 2024, Andrew Jones achieved his dream of finally racing in the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Now, two years on, his latest triathlon was supposed to be another step toward replicating Jones’ biggest dream. Instead, the water left him fighting an infection and spending more than a week in the hospital.

The Carmarthenshire triathlete had traveled the world chasing Ironman events and eventually earned his long-awaited place at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. But shortly before the biggest race of his life, an open-water event left him seriously ill.

Speaking to BBC Wales, Jones said poor water quality was responsible for what followed. “Unfortunately, due to some poor water quality, I contracted Campylobacter,” he explained.

Jones began feeling unwell on the Sunday evening after the triathlon. His heart rate rose, while sickness and shaking quickly followed. He ended up at A&E and was admitted to hospital, where doctors treated him with intravenous antibiotics for a week.

“I was in just over a week before one of the biggest races of my life. So very bad timing,” Jones said. The experience also forced him to reconsider how confidently athletes can approach open-water swimming.

“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,” he said. The incident, he added, made him question whether he would feel comfortable swimming in that particular area again.

Yet this battle was different – not physical exhaustion, but infection. Jones had already experienced some brutal racing moments, including one particularly memorable disaster in Lanzarote.

“I’ve had projectile vomiting on the bike, and bilateral IV drips in the medical tent in Lanzarote after losing 2 kg of body weight during the race,” he previously recalled.

Yet those experiences never stopped him. In fact, adversity has always been part of what attracted Jones to triathlon.

If we take a look at his journey, Jones didn’t start as a triathlete. He played rugby at semi-professional level before injury forced a change.

A chance encounter with a race leaflet changed everything. He spotted it in a bike shop, entered a local triathlon featuring a sea swim, borrowed a bike, and even used a surf wetsuit. He was hooked.

That first race in 2014 eventually grew into an international career. Jones competed across countries including Mexico, Malaysia, and the United States, raced Ironman Wales and even joined celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s Ironman team.

But his biggest motivation came from his father, Arthur. Arthur had served with the RAF before spending decades teaching swimming in Carmarthen. He also helped establish Carmarthen Swim Club and coached his son from childhood.
In 2017, the pair watched the Ironman World Championship together. Arthur looked at Andrew and delivered a prediction that would stay with him. “If you keep working hard, one day you will get there.”

Arthur died not long afterward following complications from a car accident. But his message remained. One of his final requests to his son was simple: “Make sure you race Kona.”

Years later, Jones finally fulfilled it. That journey makes the timing of his latest health scare even more frustrating. Still, his father’s philosophy continues to shape the way he approaches setbacks. “Train hard and race easy and smile,” Arthur once told him.

Jones has tried to live by those words, using training as an escape from his demanding work in anaesthetics, theatre, and intensive care. His family has also remained an important source of strength.

“I try to stay positive by remaining focused,” he said. “I also have an incredibly supportive family, and that always helps when I have to dig deep.”

Now, Jones’ experience could help make open-water racing safer for others.

Triathlon Cymru’s new project could change how athletes assess water quality

To improve water-quality monitoring, Triathlon Cymru has teamed up with Swim Wales, Bangor University and Imperial College London for the Safer Blue Spaces initiative. The project is focused on identifying what swimmers may be exposed to during open-water events.

During the Barry SWYD Sprint Triathlon in August, some athletes had compact sampling devices fitted to their wetsuits. Rather than collecting water from just one or two fixed points before the event, the equipment moved alongside the swimmers, gathering samples along the course.

The approach allows researchers to track the conditions swimmers encounter throughout the course rather than relying only on a few fixed sampling points. For Triathlon Cymru, that information could be crucial, given the number of events held across Wales. “For us as an organization, knowing what’s in our water is really important because we’re putting athletes in the water,” said Amy Jenner, the organization’s head of development.

The devices are later sent to Bangor University, where researchers concentrate the collected samples and check for pathogens.

The goal is bigger than one race. Triathlon Cymru hopes the findings can eventually be shared with environmental agencies and water companies, helping improve understanding of the condition of Wales’ seas, rivers, and lakes.
For athletes like Jones, that knowledge could make a difference before they ever dive in.

After all, chasing a dream should be about testing the limits of the athlete – not the limits of the water.