Bronze at Sprint Triathlon World Championships - Lausanne

Lausanne is a beautiful destination with a challenging course and it had amazing weather over the World Championship series weekend. It was well into the 30s for our race which made it just a little bit harder! It was my first sprint race against a World's best women's field. It began fast with a 750m swim in clean clear Lake Geneva. I wanted to reach the turning buoys in a good position which I did, but lost a few positions on the 300m straight back to the shore. I exited the water around 10th position and settled into the main pack. The 500m hill on each of the 4 laps was tiring for everybody, there was a lot of heavy breathing around. It took our group almost 3 laps to catch Helen Jenkins who rode off solo after she exited the water ahead. The race for the places began on the run and the pace was on from the beginning. I managed to run behind the leaders, with a red face and sometimes with my eyes closed. I took on no water for the 5km. I just kept pushing until I had crossed the finish line. I would've liked to have had another gear to push into like Barbara Riveros, but I didn't. I was pretty happy to run down the finish chute in 3rd place though, back on the podium.

Massively dehydrated from Saturday and pretty tired, I raced the first leg of the Team's race on Sunday. It was more of a fun race, so much easier because it was so much shorter and with a much smaller field. New Zealand finished in 10th place and straight after a shower, it was into the car for a 4hr drive back to France with Laurent.
I am to race in the French club team's triathlon in Tours on Sunday, and one week later travel on to Beijing for the Grand Finale. I am 4th in the World rankings, just 1 point from 3rd!
It will be ALL ON in BEIJING!!

 

Click here for full Lausanne results

QUALIFIED FOR THE OLYMPICS!!

Thank you to everyone for your cheering and support if you were at the race, in front of the TV or the computer and also for your continued support for every race.
The only word that needs to be said after the London World Championship series event over the weekend is QUALIFIED!
A top 10 finish in this Olympic course rehearsal race meets the Triathlon NZ criteria for the 2012 London Olympic Games. I finished in 6th place, 20 seconds from the winner Helen Jenkins from the UK.

I am pleased with my race and am excited, now 1 year out, to be racing in the Olympic Games next year. I felt in control, in touch with the leaders during the swim and the bike, then expended everything I had during the 10km run. I really pushed myself to the limit on the run course around the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. I have to mention the obstacles, which they really are, all around the 2.5km loop. They built wooden boards over the speed bumps, put pieces of bouncey plastic over the grass and put wood underneath then covered the finish straight with blue carpet. I know it upset my rhythm during the run as it did for everyone, although I really enjoyed the challenge of this course. On the first lap of the run, there were still 20 girls in touch with the leaders who had a chance. But by the 5km mark, we had spread out a bit more, with some girls falling back and others finding their rhythm and moving up. I made my first move up at 4km and was in the lead group of 5. But at the 4.5km Helen Jenkins made her break, which was enough to run away with the win. I found myself in 3rd for a while, but then was caught by Anja Dittmer, who I ran with for the next laps. She had the speed in the last km and the sprint to cross the line in 3rd, just 5 seconds ahead of me.

I would like to congratulate Helen, Gwen and Anja for their podium finishes and their Olympic qualifications and also to Sarah Groff who qualified! too.

I am the only NZ triathlete to have qualified here in London. The next qualifying opportunity for the rest of the team will be Sydney in April 2012 and for the men since no one finished Top 10 will have a second qualifying opportunity in Beijing, in September 2011 too.

Click here for full London results

Celebrating with Sarah and Sara (and my Aunty Christine behind us) after qualifying. But had a quick stop to make at the drug testers before I could open the champagne from Aunty Caroline and Uncle Peter.

Now, 5 days after the race, I've got that feeling when I wake up that I'm still tired. Laurent makes some noise with the blender downstairs to tell me "it's time to get up!" so I do, and I train. This morning we went for a 2.5 - 3 hr loop ride and came back in 2hrs 25min! with a few sprints too, so the legs still have it. But this feeling, it's a lazy feeling knowing I worked so hard for one goal and now it's done.
Lausanne Sprint and Team World Champs in 9 days.
Gonna keep going.