East of Fife triathlon pair pull on the national colours

Running from 5 – 14 July 2018, the ITU Multisport World Championships Festival saw visitors from all over the world arrive to experience five world championships and several side events within the same week wrapped up in a huge international multisport festival.

With its mix of water, road and soil, Fyn provided the perfect location for some of the world’s best athletes in duathlon, cross triathlon, aquathlon, aquabike and triathlon to contest the World Championships.

Whilst attracting many elite athletes at the head of the field, the World Championships also brought age-group athletes from across the globe together to compete against each other.

Sally and David, based on their performances in various qualifying events last season, had been selected to represent GB in the Aquabike race which consisted of a 3km swim followed by a 120km bike leg.

The swim took place in a sea water canal and saw David and Sally battling zero visibility, countless jellyfish and their fellow competitors for around an hour before exiting the water to get on their bikes.

Consisting of two reasonably flat and picturesque loops in the countryside north of the city of Odense, the bike course really suited the East Fife pair.

Both athletes were able to make light work of the windy conditions and claw back several places during the 120km bike leg.

David averaged 23.6mph for his bike leg and finished in 4:07:53 for fifth in category, whilst Sally finished in 4:53:07, moving up from 12th in category after the swim to seventh in category by the end.

With their races now over and no requirement to complete a run leg, the athletes were still given the chance to head straight to the finishers chute to have their moment of glory with their GB flags in front of the cameras, which proved a nice way to finish their event.

Both are looking forward to further opportunities to pull on the GB colours again.