World Cup, Ishigaki

The first World Cup which of raced during  my 2013 season, was in Ishigaki, Japan. It was a long, 30 hour travel from Johannesburg, but I was looking forward to the race. The weather really wasn’t playing along on race day; it was cold and rainy so that made for a scary bike on a technical course.

I didn’t have a good start to the first lap of the 1500m swim and was almost last in the swim after 50m. I just couldn’t get out of the blocks fast and that made for a tough swim. I kept to the back of the swim and just hoped that the athletes in front of me don’t loose the feet in front of them. After the first lap I decided to try and move myself up and was hoping that I can have a good race after that. I could see that I was passing a few athletes and gaining on the pack in front.  In the end of the swim I was 2^nd pack and the leaders weren’t too far ahead of me.

The cycle was hard from the start. As the hill was just 50m after transition, I just knew I had to stay in the group. The complete first lap was hard and then my legs settled in and I started to feel good on the bike. We caught up a few athletes that were dropped from the front pack. Because it was very wet and slippery, the main focus was to stay upright, but still go hard. A lot of athletes crashed on the challenging route - there was a huge crash in the front pack taking out 6 guys, so everyone was scared after that and didn’t want to go down. I had a strong bike and I thought my legs were feeling good after the cycle but then on run decided otherwise.

The route was hard but only 3 laps so mentally it was better than a 4 lap run. I gave it my all and hoping to get a good result. But in the end I was 15^th and happy with the result.

There are a lot of positives to take out of this race – which I definitely will.

I thank everyone who made it possible for me to race in Japan, my sponsors and especially my parents who believed in me.

Until next time

Cheers