A picture says a thousand words, so here is 4 thousand words, courtesy of the 2013 ITU Female age group Olympic distance triathlon champion. I am still in awe of how hard Parys trains and pushes herself, a true champion in every sense of the word and the nicest most encouraging person you could ever meet.
In September Emma ventured off to Beijing to represent team GB at the triathlon world championships. Initially it was in our plan to qualify for the worlds or Europeans in 2012, but when Emma qualified for this year what would you do but take the spot.
Obviously for a race of such importance and prestige you want to be at your best. The goal was to put in a PB type performance and on an unkown course and conditions it is hard to put too many specific and achievable targets that are not controlled by outside factors. As a coach I thought it would be nice to be in the top 10 for your age, but I never mentioned this goal. Looking at the profile of the course I did think that it played to Emma’s strengths and she would race well.
On race day Emma definitely pulled out that PB performance and came home 5th in age group. A brilliant race and everyone is ecstatic with the final result. To use her words “the coaching rocks”, although I would prefer to say Emma rocks!
Since returning from Beijing Emma raced the Fixed relays at Dorney, this is a team event where every member completes all 3 legs. Happy to say that Emma’s team with Parys and CJ all from Ful-on tri club took out the win for the fastest female team and 5th fastest team overall, this result included a 5min PB over last year from Emma. I am already looking forward to see what Emma can do in 2012.
The previous weekend saw the final test event for the 2012 Olympic Triathlon venue in Hyde Park London. In the Elites it was not surprising to see a home win in the mens race for Alistair Brownlee and in the female race Helen Jenkins also won this for UK and pleasing to see her on top of the podium as she has been consistently at the top end of the race all season. Her consistency also showing in her current 4th ranking in the World Championship Series points.
From an Age group perspective, two very pleasing results with Parys being the fastest female age grouper overall, showing a nice to return to full fitness after injury & rehabilitation in the off season. Adding this victory to her Windsor Age group result in previous seasons, nice.
A more outstanding result was for Emma who took off a massive 10 minutes from last year and her previous pb and placing 3rd in age. This is a massive improvement over one season and showing that her fitness is peaking as she prepares for Beijing age group race next month. Great racing.
Andrew Tong | Triathlon coaching 