My Triathlon Journey

With September holding two significant races I’ve split the two across two blogs, with the first an insight into my race recap of the European Youth Triathlon Champs, representing Great Britain in Kitzbuhel, Austria, against the top athletes from countries across Europe.

European Youth Triathlon Championship – Kitzbuhel, Austria 📍

After winning the qualifying race in June to represent Great Britain at the European Championship in Austria, I headed out there two weeks ago, for heats and finals racing over two days.

Whilst I really wanted to make the most of the high level racing opportunity and representing my country at a major championship, unfortunately over the course of the week it was quite clear afterwards I wasn’t 100% for the race and that showed more with the two weeks that followed. However, I was still able to deliver a strong performance considering, display great improvement and be part of an incredible experience, which no doubt will support me massively for future international and championship competition.

Heats (Semi-Final 3)

I ended up in Semi-Final (Heat) 3 of 3, racing at 4.30pm on what had been a wet and cold week up in the mountains in the couple days prior but the day was set for a drier yet chilly late afternoon race. With just top 9 making the A final out of the 30 per heat, + 3 fastest losers across all heats, my aim for the heats was to do the right processes I needed to get me into the A final.

I had a great swim start diving off well and getting clear water over the five to my right and exiting the swim about 14th to get into the 2nd bike pack. Unfortunately, this was the first major sign of not being 100% as my legs just felt completely flat and empty the whole bike, yet I was determined not to give up and had adapt from my plans of positioning and where I could put effort down in the race to conserving without getting dropped. I managed to do this, and came into T2 well in the group and through cleanly to start the run around 6th/7th and catch the group of 5 that were up the road. I felt good running, better than the swim and bike as a whole and used the short run climb well to gain some extra time, finishing my heat 4th and qualified for the A final. I was happy to have achieved my goal and focused on the final the next day.

A Final

I entered the A final aiming to show my potential and deliver a strong performance. The swim again was good showing my progress over this year as I came out the water just 10s off the front bar 2 or so a few seconds ahead, which helped me to get in the front bike group early. Unfortunately my legs were very much like the day before so struggled to make significant inroads on the bike as I would’ve hoped, however I stayed in the group still and once through T2 was out at the front of my group and just 6s off the leader.

This time starting the run I had absolutely no legs and felt empty, just getting overtaken and pumping my arms quicker but just not able to shift my legs, which was completely different to usual. Over the first lap I lost places from starting the run however that stopped and then over the second 1km lap I started winding up a bit and gained 5 places in the last 600m to take 12th in Europe.

More initially I was disappointed and am gutted that I wasn’t my usual self able to perform at my best and deliver my greater potential, but through reflection can see where issues were and that I was affected by more uncontrollable factors in part like being run down over the race week which affected why I felt empty in my legs. However, I could take the result given how I felt and I still want to improve and perform in the future and make more championship races, being able to take learnings from this one, which included things in my control too. I had difficulties with sleep over the whole week too, waking up for several hours in the night, so have learnt around bits like that and learning to relax so was definitely a great experience and the most important thing is how I react from a race like that I think but I had a great time out there and was supported by a great team!