World Championship Part II

I have been holding off typing this as I wanted to wait until the last of my athletes finished, which they just have. So here we go.

Part II of this World Championship week done and dusted. Last weekend was the ITU World Champs and today was the first day of the 70.3 World Champs, which is the day that the women race.

All up I had three athletes racing today and they are now all done.

What can I say, wow, what a tough course that looked to be. I mean we knew it was going to be, but still, watching the race, it was obviously so hard. On the 10km climb to the summit on the bike, I think the average speed for my athletes was about 10km/h. Ouch.When an athlete like Ryf wins the World Champs in 4 hours 23 min, you know it is pretty darn hard. Based on Ryf's time and what I saw today from my athletes, I would say this course is about 30 minutes slower than a normal 70.3. That is fairly significant difference.

So with all that, I am very proud of the three athletes who raced today. There was Hayley who was my first athlete across the line, in about 6 hours 24 (Hayley is usually a sub 6 hour athlete, so again it demonstrates how hard this course is). Second across was Nadia who did a near Ironman effort of about 7 hours 40. Once again Nadia's time was about 40 minutes slower than she would usually expect. And finally, my final athlete Gayle, who unfortunately fell foul of the cut off time in T2 and wasn't allowed to start the run. I am pretty darn gutted for Gayle, as she is an absolute star and a really hard worker.

Gayle's plight does frustrate me a little, because this course is obviously brutally tough, and while Ironman is supposed to be a challenge etc, particularly at the World Champs, in my view it shouldn't be so monstrous that a dedicated and well prepared athlete like Gayle, who races in one of the more senior categories, should be at risk of not finishing. I really feel for her as she had put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this one and to have it taken away is just incredibly frustrating.

So a bit of a mixed bag there. For my athletes the aim of today was completion with a good day and unfortunately that wasn't possible for all of them. Not a bad start to the 70.3 Worlds, but I won't lie, I was hoping for just a bit better.

I am keen to see what Part III brings tomorrow.