‘Thursday night saw the teams assembly for the Parade of Nations – with each nation walking the streets behind their national flags. The streets were lined with local, friends & family and the atmosphere was amazing. Once we had all fill the square in front of the stand – we were treated to a fly by by a fighter jet, local big wigs wishing us luck. Compared to the home nations & nearby national for once Great Britain had a small side of 380 athletes, Mexicans had over 600 as did USA but Canada had over 800 athletes competing! Even the Brazilians had brought a team of 300. This meant only one thing, that the completion as you’d expect was going to be off the scale. Racing these nations is harder than racing on the other side of the world. Yes Australia are good but nothing like America, Mexico & Brazil who have a decent amateur set up. After the parade we out paced the Aussies & Canadians to the welcome banquet. Small victory there.
Mike Essex & myself in the 40-44 race saw the largest field for the days racing and it was packed with the key nations & rumours of two ex Olympians from Sydney & Beijing (Brazilian & Mexican – still unconfirmed. we were lead from the swim holding eon where I was trash talking anyone who’d open their mouth – yes I was nervous so I was on attack 🙂 We moved from to the race area by a guy playing the bag pipes. As we headed through a pack crowd I saw Michael Armer & his lovely girl friend – this made me very emotional as every was cheering & shouting ‘Go GB!’. We had to wait 30mins in the holding pen. The tension always rises in these situation but I wasn’t fussed, I won’t lie and say I wasn’t nervous but more about will my goggles as it’s was a dive beach start & if they’d came off I’d be making life hard for myself. Mike lined up beside me & a simple look said it all – ‘let’s do this’.
We all filed in & line up on the pontoon on the beach and take our positions ahead of the horn going off. It was 250m straight swim to the first buoy and I wanted to get their well placed. The horn went and I had the perfect start. Massive dive in and powered away as hard as I could. I was swimming eye ball to eye ball with a dude to my left – for me this never happens as I’m always one of the quickest swimmers. Half way I looked to my left and there where still swimmers making a charge but by the time we hit the buoy it was just myself & this American. I felt great as a result. In my head I was saying – ‘here I am at the world final racing the best in the world & I’m leading the out – COME ON!!!!’.
This gave me such confidence & focus that the game was REALLY on! I stayed close to the guy by me for the next two turns but he took an aggressive line so I found myself on his toes then he open I little gap. I didn’t panic and swam straight & true whilst he drifted around. I exited closed to him and looked up to see a gap behind – wow! Im in 2nd place (silver bloody medal & I’ve just dicked the best In the world. 2nd place overall & 9 second behind gold medal.
The run from swim to transition (bike) was so long – nearly 500m. I looked to run hard but going from swimming to hard running can kill you so as the crowds cheers me on, I settled in. This allowed two other athletes to get a little closer to me. After a quick transition I exited still in 2nd place overall. I looked to get the American back quickly but he flew off quickly.
The first part of the bike was a steady incline into a steep hill of 8%. I was moving well but got mugged by 2 Brazilians & Mexican who on road bikes made good use of their advantage. I didn’t panic so now I was 5th I worked hard and took one back place going down hill and then another 5km in up the second long steady drag of a hill. Back to 3rd place overall. In this kind of racing, everyone is amazing, people flying around looking like they are moving quicker than you so there was no backing off. Better to die trying than to not try at all. On the second lap I held my place and opened a gap on the next British athlete.
Coming back into transition I was nervous about the run. My bike split was in the top 5 overall so another job done. My weakest discipline now but one I’ve worked so hard on. Would my legs work, would they perform or would they blow up after my strong bike.
I headed out & looked to settle into a nice pace. The first half of the run was on a nice shady trail. I was moving but not flying – but at I was moving okay. The course was quiet. I was catching the women from the age group below who’d set off 15mins earlier. I was followed by a very nice American girl for a while & we were running well together but by 2.5km the two Brazilians flew by me like I was standing still – both clearly playing their trump cards.
Back to 5th overall. I could never run at that place – they both clocked low 17mins so I said that’s fair, but let’s hold onto top Brit & this position. But fatigue set in & I lost focus with this and listened to my body rather than telling it to shut up. Once we got onto the Tarmac road Section I quickly regained focus & looked to secure top British athlete (great honour & automatic qualify for the next world championships). Over the last 500m I was over taken by an American but safe in 6th place overall.
As I came down the blue carpet I was relieved as I didn’t need to run hard I could jog it out & enjoy my achievement – proud of what I’d achieved. 6th in the WORLD, 1st Brit & I can honestly say that I had really given it a go. This has given me hope that although I’m 40 soon that I can race hard & compete on a world level. I couldn’t have ran with the two Brazilians but a bronze medal would have been a dream but now I think it really is a reality.’
As raced and reported by Mark Yeoman
