I was fortunate to go to the Gold Coast to watch the world champs, I have attached video clips of Alistair Brownlee and Emma Moffatt crossing the finish line to become World Champions.
Both races were exciting to watch with the World Champions putting the results beyond doubt by winning their final races of the series.
I always get great satisfaction when an athlete achieves their targets. Some months ago Jackie advised me that she was contemplating increasing her race distance from sprint to standard but was uncertain about if she could do this and the time it would take her to complete the distance. I was naturally excited with the prospect of Jackie stepping up and had every confidence that she would do well. I also understood the nervousness as all triathletes at some stage have made a leap out of their comfort zone and pushed themselves further than in the past. This can be by entering your first triathlon or taking on a harder challenge.
Once I knew of Jackie’s desire to complete this distance I encouraged her to enter the race so that she was committed and adjusted her training accordingly. The initial goal for this race was to finish, in a time of around 3hrs, I quietly was targeting for Jackie to go sub 3hours and a stretch target of 2:45.
Jackie raced Tatton Park last Sunday and completed it in a time of 2:45, placing 7th in her age group, an excellent result for her first Standard Distance. I am not sure if Jackie’s feet have hit the ground yet, as she is ecstatic with this result. Well done Jackie.
For those that know Parys will not be surprised, but she has managed to PB at Bala Standard Distance this weekend, despite having minimal run training over the last 2months due to injury. This placed Parys 4th female overall and 2nd in her category. This great result has also ensured that Parys has booked a place to go the Athlone in 2010 to compete in the European Standard distance champs for Great Britain, which was the main objective of this race. Well Done Parys
Andrew Tong | Triathlon coaching 