Daniel, one of our older Junior members (aged 18) competed in the The Bowood Auqathlon on Sunday the 27th of July. This event was part of the Elite Super Series and consisted of three separate races that took place over a 6 hour period. The layout for the three races was balanced so that the first race had a 800m swim and a 1km run, the second race had a 500m swim and a 2k run and the third race had a 300m swim and a 3km run. The swim took place in the Bowood lake which was surrounded by a valley. This provided a challenging run course which included a short steep hill which needed to be negotiated on every 500m lap. This was followed by a rapid downhill to the finish.
Daniel gives us his account of his race….
In the first race, my swim put me in a great position that allowed me to attack the two lap run. The transition was fast, however, I failed to place my wetsuit into the transition box which rewarded me with a warning and a stern telling off from the race officials after the race. During the run I managed to claw back some places up the hill and finish 6th in the junior boys.
During the second race I had an even better swim putting me again in the perfect situation to claim a high position. A faultless transition the second time around allowed me to exit transition with some strong runners to chase. Skip Snelson was a few strides ahead of me coming out of transition and provided the perfect shoulder to race behind up the hills on the first two laps. Kicking on the last two laps I managed to gain a few extra places and finish 4th in the junior boys.
For the final race I was aiming to improve on the 6th and 4th that I had already achieved as the best two results would count towards the national series so better than 6th would be a good result. The swim was fast and furious and I was unable to keep up with the rapid pace that the leaders set. Coming out the water I had a lot of work to do to catch up. A slick transition helped bring me back into the race for 6 brutal laps of the run course. I was able to catch a few places back on the run to put me equal with my 6th result so I was unable to improve on my worst result.
After all that my best two results were 4th and 6th which put me in 6th overall out of the 44 junior boys who competed. Written by Daniel.
Great result Daniel – Well done!
