Sunday 20 September 2015

Day #82, Week #12: WTS Chicago

Ladies Elite, 1st Gwen Jorgenson USA (centre), 2nd Non Stanford GBR (left),
3rd Vicky Holland GBR (right).  Non & Vicky both qualified for Rio

I ENJOYED watching the worlds elite triathletes in this seasons climax to the WTS World Championships in Chicago over the last two nights.  The incredible achievement by Spaniard Javier Gomez, achieving a record breaking fifth ITU World Championship title was slightly dampened by team mate Mario Mola who pipped Gomez to the finishing line. Mola always looked the most comfortable of the two, and I wasn't surprised when he stepped up in the final stage of the run to win the grand final just in front of Gomez. Turns out it was the fastest 10k in ITU hishory at 28:59.

I was particularly impressed with back-to-back champ Gwen Jorgenson (and who wouldn't be) considering the dark place she was in just prior to the start of her phenomenal winning streak, and BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin on her Team GB selection after only taking up triathlon two years ago,

Who is Garefis Christos? He hails from Greece and races in the 60-64 age group, the best of the best in my age group. He won both the sprint (01:08:05) and standard Olympic distance (02:09:47), racing the sprint on Thursday followed by the standard on Saturday, just two days apart. He did the same thing at the 2015 Geneva ETU European Championships in July. How cool is that! 

The one thing I get from watching the elites is how key the run is. This is where Jorgenson and the Brownlees (when fit) strike fear into the rest of the field. How do I get my sub 29 minutes 5k down to sub 22 like Christos? As they say, if you wanna play Carnegie Hall, you gotta practice!

Roll on Rio!

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