National Schools Triathlon Championships Race Report

Race: National schools Tri Champs Lake Kawana
Date: 3rd-6th May 2019
Result: National Schools U/15 Triathlon Champion
Result: National U/15 Mixed Team Relay Champions

National schools 2019, the big dance and the pinnacle of the season with a home ground advantage. All the hard work that has been put in over the season, all lead up to this race.  It was an extremely early 4:00am rise, followed up by the traditional pre-race meal of two pieces of jam on toast and a cup of tea. It was a chilly morning, with the wind slicing through everyone, however the skies were clear and some fast racing was ahead.

There were definitely a lot of nerves building up inside of me whilst setting up transition and throughout the warm-up but they were quickly extracted by race start. The race plan was simple, good swim to be out with front pack, sit on the bike and then back my running ability to win. Race distance was only 300m swim, 15km bike and a 2.5km run, so there was no room for errors.
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Wave start was at 7:00am, first race of the day and I was ready to fire. It was about a knee-deep swim start which gave me the opportunity to implement my wading skills and get away with a clean start, and I did. I was 2nd around the first can and was in a good position for a strong swim; I made my way up into 1st, before being overtaken by Billy from NSW midway through the swim.

Out of the water and I was in 2nd with two other QLD boys in Ethan and Seb, Billy had extended his lead out to  about a 10 second gap. The long run from the water to T1 was utilised to my advantage by working it hard and gaining some more time on Billy, as discussed with coach pre-race. I had a clean T1 and had made front pack on the bike, I was extremely happy with my position.

It was a 3 Lap ride, and the first lap on the bike was quick, there were some strong cyclist in the group and were pushing the pace up the front.  I felt as if I had a bit of an advantage over the other boys as it was in my backyard and I had practised this bike course a fair bit in prep to this race.

Anyway, onto the 2nd lap and the pace had dropped right out, no one wanted to work which resulted in the chase pack merging and forming one group with about 8 of us in it. We all rode together and no real attacks were made on the final lap, this left me in an excellent position to win and I knew I could.

I must admit it wasn’t my cleanest transition and I did drop a tiny amount of time to the other boys but nothing I knew I couldn’t get back. My mentality on the run was to break the boys early and run away from them. I automatically picked the leg speed up and was able to put a gap into the field, it was now just a matter of hanging on which was made easy by a huge support crew who were riding me home as well as much needed words by coach throughout the 2 lap run course.

I was able to do it, and it was an unreal feeling of satisfaction knowing that the hard work had paid off, but definitely couldn’t have been achieved by my incredible support crew as well as my amazing coach, and last but not least my parents, so thank you to everyone who made this possible.