The Scotstoun athlete had a busy 2014 as he faced a race against time to be fit for Glasgow 2014 — after an injury early in the year — as well as a full-time university schedule, he is studying applied maths at Stirling University.

Austin won his battle for fitness and competed at Glasgow but admits his workload made it difficult for him to be at his best.

He said: “I was training and had a full uni timetable. It was hard going, with the stress of uni and trying to get ready for Glasgow. If I could do that year over again I would probably do it differently because it was hard going.

“I knew going in to Glasgow I wasn’t at my best but it was fantastic to compete in my home city. My work in the sport for seven years had been building to that but I’m still young for a triathlete.” However Austin has taken the lessons from this year on board and has dropped some modules at university in order to spend more time training as he bids to qualify for the Team GB sqaud for Rio 2016.

He said: “For the next two years that is my goal, that’s what I’m dedicating myself for is Rio. Then I can look to the next Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast then the Olympics in Tokyo.

“I want to give it a go as a full-time athlete for a couple of years to see what improvements can be made.” The 20-year-old has achieved a lot in his sport already, apart from competing at Glasgow 2014 he won silver in the World Under-23 Championships in the same year and having had those successes he is aiming for more.

However he concedes the standard in triathlon is higher than ever as the Brownlee brothers continue to dominate the sport— Alistair and Jonny won gold and silver at Glasgow 2014— but Austin is up for the challenge.

He added: “If you look at a few years before the Brownlee brothers the races were different. They have definitely changed the sport for the better you want the standard to be as high as possible.”