Over the past few days I’ve had the privilege to volunteer at the Glasgow 2018 European Championships.
Today however was the most notable for me as through North Lanarkshire Council I was able to gain an accreditation and with that gain access to the press area for the Elite Men’s Triathlon event, and here is my report.
Day 9 of the European Championships in Glasgow saw Strathclyde Park play host to the elite Men’s Triathlon event. For those who don’t know Triathlon is made up of 3 events, swimming, cycling and running. As this was an Olympic guideline event, in total the athletes covered 51.5 Kilometres or 31.93 Miles.
The favourite coming into the event was Olympic Champion Alistair Brownlee, however he was without his brother, Olympic Silver Medallist Jonathan.
The event started off with swimming, and at the end of the swim, Alistair was just outside the medals in P4, just 6 seconds off the leader. At this stage eventual race winner Pierre La Corre was in P2 just a second behind the leader.
Following that transition, the racers were off on their bikes and were setting off for 6 laps of the course. At the halfway point, fan favourite Alistair, wsd racing in P6 but the pack was all bunched together as he was just a second off the leader.
By transition 2 moving from cycling onto the running stage, Alistair was in P4, however he had slipped back slightly and was now 4 seconds off the lead, a gap he would never close. Race winner Pierre was now leading and he would drop that lead only once, before finishing in the gold medal position.
Sadly Alastair just missed out on the medals, despite climbing back up to P2 he dropped back to P4, and came across the line 55 seconds after Pierre and 32 seconds after bronze medal winner Marten Van Riel.
Following the race I managed to catch up with two of the British Athletes, Alistair Brownlee and Barclay Izzard.
I asked Alistair, as it was Scotland’s Year of Young People, what advice he would give to young people looking to get into Triathlon to which he replied
“I’d say just get out and do it. Find a club, find some friends to do it. Find a routine you can do, week in week out and enjoy it!”
Then I spoke to Barclay and we asked him how he felt following his P9 finish.
“It was an unreal experience with the crowd and everything, I didn’t know how my performance would be, and to be in the second pack in the run, the crowd really helped me get around the course.”
I then asked him how it felt running next to Alistair.
“In 2012 I was watching him as a young kid and it’s just unreal being in the same team as him.”
Finally I asked him about his targets to which he said
“Targeting the worlds (World Championships) for this year but I’m just taking it a race at a time.”
So, overall a great day here. Disappointing that Team GB didn’t pick up any medals but still a great experience to talk to the guys afterwards.
Coverage and Photography by Christopher Winters
