After the Gold Coast WTS in April Hamburg was my only other chance to be automatically nominated by finishing within the top 10 and be the first Australian across the line. In Gold Coast I finished 6th but my training partner Ashleigh Gentle was 2nd and claimed the auto spot there.

On Saturday in Hamburg I crossed the line 8th (Ashleigh was 2nd again but as she had already qualified she was ineligible) so I’m very happy to say I managed to secure the final automatic nomination!
It wasn’t the best race of my life but definitely one I’m proud of.

I had a really strong swim and put myself in a solid position by the end of the cycle. The majority of the field ended up in one big group so it was important to stay safe and have an awareness of what was going on around me. My run wasn’t as speedy as I had hoped or prepared for with the front girls moving extremely fast. I was initially quite disappointed with this but I did what I came to do which was to grab the automatic spot so the disappointment didn’t last long
A huge congratulations to the impressive podium girls – Flora Duffy, Ashleigh Gentle and Laura Lindemann.
I loved the build up to both Hamburg and Gold Coast and challenging myselfto perform to my best ability under pressure and I’m incredibly excited to line up alongside Ashleigh next year in the Gold Coast! The final spot will be decided by discretion later in the year.

Team Relay World Championship- Backing Up

I didn’t have long to celebrate on Saturday night as I had to turn my focus to the World Mixed Team Relay Championships the next day. The relay will be a medal event in Gold Coast next year and has also just recently been added to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics so it was extra special to be a part of the team this year!
I raced the first leg with Matt Hauser, Ashleigh Gentle and Jake Birtwhistle following.
Last year I made a huge mistake in transition which cost me a great deal of critical time and I felt like I struggled under the pressure. I learnt a lot from that experience and I made sure I went into the race this year with a solid plan to stick to.
My swim wasn’t great but I rode really hard on the first lap of the ride to make up ground. There ended up being most of the field (20 teams in total) in our bike group so I had to ride quite aggressive to hold a good position and get into transition as near the front as possible.
The run hurt! It was only 1600m long so it felt like I was sprinting the whole time! A small group of 5 of us edged ahead together and with a tight sprint at the end I managed to hand over to Matt in 2nd place. Thankfully a much better leg for me this year
Matt and Ashleigh both were amazing and put us into a great position before handing over to Jake in 5th. There were 2 athletes who had a gap up the road but ‘Super Jake’ mowed them down, took the lead in the final few hundred metres and Australia won our first ever Mixed Team Relay World Championship!!!!
It was incredibly special and an honour to be a part of the team and I’m proud we can officially say we are the World Champions!

So it was a pretty good weekend in Hamburg for me

I’m so grateful for the incredible support that surrounds me everyday. My family, fiancé Brendan (who came to Europe to help me prepare for Hamburg), my friends back home, my training group, Triathlon Australia and the support staff – and of course my coach JT for his unwavering belief in my ability. We did it!!!!

Photographs are thanks to :

Tommy Zafares, Triathlon.org, Michael Strokosch, Simon Damiral and British Triathlon.

The second event of the World Triathlon Series tour this year was on home soil on the Gold Coast. The race had been on my mind since my training recommenced late last year as it was the first automatic qualifying race for a place on the Australian Commonwealth Games team – a team who will compete on the exact same Gold Coast course next year. I’ve raced in Gold Coast twice before and both times I had very disappointing performances so for the few months preparation leading into this year’s event I left no stone unturned. After a relatively relaxed start to the year I started to feel some form building in training through the weeks leading into Gold Coast and I was very excited to test myself out against a world class field.

In both 2016 & 2015 my swim performances were not at a world standard and since then I devoted a lot of effort into lifting my ability to a level that is consistently competitive. I wanted to execute a good swim this year more than ever. I got off to a good start and was able to exit the super choppy Broadwater in a position in sight of the front girls. I hammered the first 2km of the ride which paid off as I had made up enough ground to find myself with the leaders early on. By the end of the ride almost the rest of the field had also made contact with the front so the priority became holding good position heading into transition with 50 other motivated girls!

I executed transition without error and hit the run with the leaders. I knew getting as close to the front as possible would mean the advantageous use of the strong tailwind before we turned back around into the resistance. It broke up pretty quickly and I felt that the pace at the very front was too fast for me. I found myself running for the rest of the way in a small group of 4 with a small but, as it turned out, unassailable lead. My race ended up a sprint to the line for 4^th,5^th, 6^th and 7^th. I gave it all I could but came up short and crossed in 6^th place

Leading into this race I wanted more than 6^th. However I put myself in the best possible position and at this level of racing over such a short distance a few seconds can make a big difference in your final placing.Its encouraging to be at the pointy end of the field again and actually feel like you’re in the race – but I’m certainly not entirely satisfied with 6^th.

The other tough part was that I also missed out on the auto qualification. Ashleigh Gentle (who recently joined our training group and has become a very valuable training partner  ) finished in 2^nd and very deservingly took that spot. I will have another chance in a few months time to qualify at the Hamburg World Triathlon Series event so I’ll give it another go then  

Photos thanks to Tommy Zafares & Wybrand du Toit

Cozumel was hot. Very hot. It was recorded at 33 degrees and almost 80% humidity before we started – with the water temperature over 30 degrees! This was obviously going to be a huge factor in the race.

Pre race I directed much of my focus into my swim as I knew this would likely be key in performing well and could set up the rest of my race. Not having to work so hard on the bike to catch up to another group would mean I could preserve myself a bit more. I had a good start and had relatively clear water most of the way from the Caribbean sea into the Cozumel marina. It was the most beautiful swim I have ever done. The water was perfectly clear and the marine life was incredible (not that I took the time to enjoy the seascape on this occasion).

I exited the water and entered first transition within the top 20 but at the back of the group. This position forced me to work hard through the first lap (of eight) of the bike to secure myself within the big front group. There were three girls ahead of my group including eventual winner (and World Champion!) Flora Duffy. From there I did my best to ride good position on the technical course to minimise chance of “bad luck” and also limit the severity of the accelerations out of the turns. I worked hard to make sure I was looking after myself as much as possible on the ride by sticking to my nutrition plan and constantly throwing water over myself.

I had one plan for the run: to start out conservatively and then run within myself to avoid over-cooking my body. I went out at what I thought was relatively slow and was surprised to find myself near the front a quarter of the way through the 10km course. I was surrounded by some really good runners so it did cross my mind that perhaps I had misjudged my pacing but I felt fine so stuck with it. We caught two of the three leading girls but Flora was still powering out front by herself. Recently crowned Olympic champ (and my training buddy) Gwen Jorgensen had also opened up a gap on us early on and was now sitting in second place. I was with three other girls as we started the second lap but we started to split up as we neared the 5km mark. My body was moving well and contrary to previous races in similar conditions the heat seemed barely noticeable at this point. I was actually starting to worry about how comfortable I felt! Nonetheless I stuck to my plan of running my own race and focused on myself.

It wasn’t until the last lap that I actually realised I was running in fourth place and I could see current third position Helen Jenkins ahead of me who hadn’t put in any more time since I’d first dropped off. This was the first time I actually realised what position I was in! Immediately it occurred to me: “The podium is just ahead of me. I can see the podium!!’ For the first time, I focused on another athlete and  worked on putting in a surge and closing down the gap to Helen. I ran with her for a while, dropping off twice and surging back up in close succession well within the final 1.5km. I had a lot of confidence with my sprinting ability and I really backed myself…as long as I could stay with her until the finish was close enough to sprint. As we entered the ‘blue carpet’ with about 100m to go I surged one more time – as hard as I could – and fortunately for me Helen wasn’t able to go with me.

Running across the line I actually couldn’t believe I was in 3rd. I still can’t. It was an absolute honour to be on the podium next to two people I have huge admiration for: the 2016 World Champion Flora and, of course, Gwen. I can’t thank Gwen enough for the support, encouragement, advice, friendship and being the best training partner over the past 4 years.
There was a huge part of 2016 that didn’t go to plan for me and I really struggled with that for a long time. I thought about ending my season and heading home every day for months. What kept me going was the incredible support I received from family, friends, other athletes, sponsors, the Wollongong Wizards, my coach JT and the numerous people that contacted me. A couple of weeks ago I finally felt like I was back to my old self and I was ready to move on.

I guess what I’m most proud of is something that most people wont know. I’ve collapsed and ended up unconscious 3 times whilst racing due to heat stroke – the heat has always been a big weakness of mine. Part of me really believed I’d never perform well in hot conditions. A couple of years ago I enquired about specific heat stress training and testing and I was fortunate that the NSW Institute of Sport, Triathlon Australia and Jamie supported me in pursuing this. This year I did 3 months of heat specific training in the earlier part of the year along with sauna sessions. I’ve worked really hard over the past couple of years and researched everything I could on heat stress along with having the feedback of some awesome physiologists (including Katie Slattery, Ned Brophy-Williams and Annette Eastwood) . I learnt so much about how best to deal with the heat and what to avoid in the lead up to Cozumel. Honestly, I was so worried about it before the race and I am so proud of my commitment to preparing myself as best as I could.

Finally, a massive thanks to my coach Jamie Turner. When I started ITU in 2010 I never ever believed that I would some day stand on a WTS podium… I didn’t believe that until this year. He’s backed me 100% and then some when I wasn’t capable of backing myself.

Charlotte

Photos thanks to : Delly Carr, British Triathlon, Viviane Sloniewicz and Tommy Zafares.

Hamburg is one of the most iconic stops on the World Triathlon Circuit. Set on the banks of the Alster lake and then through the narrow streets of the beautiful city centre with tunnel swimming, narrow streets, tight corners and cobblestone transition the course can’t be called anything but unique. One other defining feature of this race is the huge crowds that line the streets all weekend charging the nerves and fuelling the adrenaline. This year the series event was a sprint distance – my first ITU sprint of the year. As the last WTS race before the Olympics the usually strong field was that little bit fitter but like most of the field I have been gaining fitness and was excited to test myself
over the sprint format.

Surprisingly in the wetsuit swim (which tends to bunch everyone up) I rounded the first buoy at 250 metres in and already had reasonably clear water. This, in my experience, either means one of two things: I was near the front… or off the back! It was difficult to tell during the race exactly where I was especially in the near pitch darkness through the 50m tunnel! Fortunately, as I ran up the exit ramp around 15th, I realised there weren’t too many ahead of me.
In the first of 6 laps a large pack quickly formed with most of the girls except for a group of seven who had a slight lead. Through a tight and technical course a big group is usually less beneficial with everyone constantly pushing for better position rather than working together. The smaller group ahead capitalised and we’d conceded around 50 seconds to the front group as we reentered transition.

I got out of T2 quickly and ran near the front of my group for the first 2km but I couldn’t quite keep up the pace with the fastest girls from my pack. A 50 second gap is quite significant to close down over 5km and only managed to catch a couple from the front group, crossing the line in 15th. It wasn’t my best race, but definitely not my worst. I managed to hold onto 8th overall in the World Triathlon Series rankings.

The next day I was fortunate enough to be selected to race for Australia in the World Mixed Team Relay Championships alongside Jake Birtwhistle, Emma Jackon and Ryan Bailie. The Mixed Relay is an incredibly exciting format and I’d love to see the inclusion of it in Tokyo 2020!

I started off first and after a swim I was very happy with I completely stuffed up my transition. I struggled to get my helmet buckled and stood there anxiously attempting to do it up for what felt like hours. In reality it was around 10 seconds but that was 10 seconds too long and I completely missed the lead group. I pushed myself forward spending most of the remainder alone but in such a short race (300m swim, 6.6km ride and 1600m run per person) it was impossible to make the time back up and I handed us over to Jake in 9th position. I have never felt so terrible about a race in my life. I knew we had a very strong team and I felt like I had completely let them down. Fortunately Jake, Emma and Ryan were incredibly strong and didn’t give up, managing to pull us back up to 2nd place!!! It was so exciting. I was so proud to be on the podium in the green and gold alongside them. Congratulations to team USA who won and Germany for 3rd.
I now have around 8 weeks until my next ITU race, which is my main focus for this season – the Grand Final in Cozumel, Mexico. Its time to get my head down and start training!

When I arrived in Europe six weeks ago I had a break away from structured training to physically recover and mentally reset. Since then I’ve worked on building my fitness backup to the level I was at for the Yokohama event. Stockholm for me was going to be the right timing and level of competition to gauge the extent of my rebuilding fitness.

The swim was in front of the city hall and due to strong winds and the undercurrent, it made the water very rough – easily the choppiest water I’ve ever raced in! As soon as we dived in I wasn’t quite sure where I was in the field or who was around me. I remained in this tumbling bubble until I got out of the harbour at 1500m. As I exited the water I noticed some familiar names around me and I knew I’d have to put pressure on myself in transition and immediately on the bike if I wanted to be near the pointy end of the race.
There were a couple of groups which had already formed within the first lap but I was fortunate to be surrounded by some very strong cyclists who I was able to work with and move forward. We effectively formed a group of around 12 with one solo rider still off the front – the determined and tunnel-visioned Flora Duffy!
The course was a little different this year but still included the steep cobbled hill which we rode up each of the 9 laps. It was also more technical than previous years with lots of tight turns in narrow streets through the Old Town of Stockholm – It was a very interesting course but also made it incredibly tough with non-stop series of braking and accelerating. I tried to stay up close to the front of the group at all times to minimise the risk of crashing. Most of the girls in my group were pushing hard on the bike which was good for positioning once the 40km was done…if you could hold on!
As I started the run I could feel the effects of the ride on my legs. I just couldn’t go at the pace with the front few girls and they put quite a lot of time into me in the first lap. Heading into the second lap of 4 I started to feel a bit more like myself and picked up my pace and each lap I picked off a couple of people. The race finished at the very top of the steep cobbled hill and as it was approaching I realised I was going to end up having a sprint finish with the strong Kiwi, Nicky Samuels. After a tough 2 hours of racing a sprint finish on a steep hill isn’t going to be the most fun way to end it! I managed to get Nicky at the very end and I crossed the line in 7th which also moved me up to 8th in the World Triathlon Series rankings. Flora remained off the front and took out the race in impressive form.

After a challenging couple of months, I am pretty happy with the result. I am very grateful for the support I’ve had from everyone around me that have allowed me to take time to refocus and plan out the rest of my season. I’m looking forward to building back up for the rest of the year!

When called down onto the start pontoon on the water’s edge I headed to the far left. When the starter’s horn blew and we hit the water the all the girls on the left half quickly separated into small groups. I wasn’t sure if sticking with the group I was with was a good decision and when we got to the first buoy I had to turn quite wide and was probably around halfway position-wise. I realised starting on the left might not have been the best position but I stuck with it and before I knew it I was swimming forward through people. I came through the first lap (halfway) in 26th place and in the second lap I again felt like I was advancing through the field. Nearing the end of the 1500m I knew I was close to the front but I wasn’t sure how close till I exited the water. There were only a handful of people ahead of me! I exited t2 in 4th position (which was a nice change compared to my last race!).

I rode quite hard in the first few laps of the ride as I knew we had a little gap to a big group behind us. Within a few laps the major groups had all come together with the bulk of the field. From there I focused on trying to hold good wheels and stay out of trouble.

Heading into t2 I managed to move up close to the front. As I racked my bike I threw one of my used gels into my ‘box’ in transition. Just before I left I noticed it had popped out. Leaving anything in transition outside your box can result in a 15 second penalty so I decided it wasn’t worth the risk and went back to put it back in, losing a few seconds and heading into the run leg towards the back of the big group…but still better off than losing 15 seconds later in the run.

My focus on the run was to make sure I paced it well so I did my best not to panic and took the first lap fairly conservatively. Heading into the second lap (of 4) I had run myself back into the top 10 and just off the back of a small group ahead. I made the decision to put in a surge and run across the gap to them as quickly as possible. I made contact with them within 1km and shortly after the pace picked up and people started dropping off. With around 4km to go Ashleigh Gentle, Ai Ueda and Andrew Hewitt accelerated and opened up a gap (My training partner and eventual winner Gwen Jorgensen was already up the road and out of sight!) and I ended up in the middle on my own. I saw Andrea start to drop off so I decided to surge again and run up to her. We ran together for the remainder of the race and ended up in a sprint finish which she pipped me in the last few metres.

I crossed the line 5th which is my best World Series result to date! More importantly, I am super happy with every decision I made under pressure during the race and how I backed myself even facing the small setbacks – something I’ve struggled with in the past.

A huge congratulations to the podium girls Gwen Jorgensen, Ash Gentle and Ai Ueda. 

After Gold Coast I did doubt a lot but I was fortunate to have the support of my family and my coach JT to ensure that I mved on quickly – as there really was no time to dwell on results between the two races.
I’ve also been fortunate to have spent the past 12 weeks training twice a week at the New South Wales Institute of Sport in the heat lab. Thank you to Katie Slattery, Ned Brophy – Williams and Annette Eastwood who have facilitated this.

I’ve now touched down in Vitoria-Gasteiz (my European base) where I will begin preparing for the next part of the season.

Thanks,

Charlotte

Photo Credits : Delly Carr & Tommy Zafares

Within 200m of the swim, I was knocked quite hard on the side of my head. I stopped briefly as a sharp pain went shooting across my head. I’d never intentionally stopped in a race before – I guess I was in a bit of shock. Within a few seconds I’d gathered myself, head down arms moving, but the brief pause at a critical period meant my position was sacrificed….and then for the remainder of the race. When back in the tail end groups the majority (not all) athletes seem to be lacking in the motivation to push hard on the bike compared to the front few bunches. So despite my effort to chase and motivate I lost a lot of time. I finished with my worst WTS result of recent times.

I spent the rest of the day with an out of place jaw and was unable to talk properly but other than that I’ve recovered well and am back into training. I’m in a good place physically and mentally and I’m surrounded by a great support network. Although disappointed, I’ve quickly shifted my focus to Yokohama WTS for which I now have another month of building upon the work I’ve done so far in 2016!

Photo Credit : Korupt Vision

Racing in Noosa was a bit of a last minute decision. I ended my ITU season in Chicago 6 weeks earlier and had a few weeks downtime visiting family and friends in Scotland. I arrived back in Australia three weeks before Noosa and decided I’d go ahead and race!

I didn’t put a lot of pressure on myself as I knew I wasn’t 100% fit but
I really wanted to enjoy the race – Noosa is a beautiful part of the world and the Triathlon Festival weekend is incredible. The organisers do amazing job of holding so many events and it’s not a surprise that every year it attracts so many athletes. It’s a very iconic race in Australia that holds heavy prestige. I couldn’t think of a better place to officially end my season!

For the first time ever the swim was held at the Noosa Main Beach rather than in the canal. I was happy with my swim and managed to exit the water in 4^th, in touch with the leaders.

How I performed in the cycle leg was going to be a bit of a mystery to me. Noosa is non-drafting (different to my usual ITU format) and I hadn’t prepared properly for a 40km time trial! I had also opted to use my road bike as I only had a couple of weeks to train on it before the race. This can be a disadvantage when time trialing so I was a little bit nervous as to how I’d go.

I was happy enough to stay close to the lead group of four girls until around 7km to go and then I lost touch. I rode the last part back into town myself at my own pace.

When I exited transition to begin the run I found out that I was in 3^rd position as Emma Moffatt had unfortunately received a time penalty on the bike and I’d over taken her without realising. I knew she and some others from behind were really fast runners and with my limited preparation I had no idea as to how I’d run. I caught second place within the first kilometre and managed to hold off the girls behind to cross the line in 2^nd behind Ashleigh Gentle!

I couldn’t be happier with how it went – I went into the race with no expectations so to be on the podium was awesome! I loved having the opportunity to race in Noosa and I’ll definitely be back

Charlotte

Pictures thanks to www.witsup.com, Aus Sports TV and Sam Betten

I had a relatively smooth start in the swim and although it is always so hard to know my position in the group I had the feeling I wasn’t far from the front swimmers. When we dived in for our second 750m lap I could see there was only a small group of around 10 ahead. I haven’t made a front group in the swim all year – in fact the last time I made a front group was in Chicago in June last year! So to say I started to get a bit excited at this point is an understatement. I knew that I’d be at the back of that group so I prepared to keep the pressure on through the second half of the swim and into the first lap of the bike to stay in touch with the leaders.

I got out of the water and I could see the lead group straight ahead. Luckily the few girls around me were as motivated as me to hang in and it took about ½ a lap to push forward safely into the front group. It was such a good feeling!! The bike course in Chicago is quite interesting as it is 9 x 4.5km laps with five U-Turns and eight 90 degree turns per lap. The constant braking and accelerating can really take a lot out of your legs. I focused on keeping a good position in the group and staying towards the front to minimise the extremes of speed changes. I made sure to contribute to the pacemaking to ensure we kept our gap on the groups behind.

I was very confident about my run and I was excited to test myself. I had some really solid sessions behind me that I had done in the weeks leading up. The first 5km was good but I dropped back in the 2nd half of the 10km. The humidity was a challenge for my heat sensitive self and despite managing my pace wisely I think it took a toll towards the end. Although I was disappointed with my run I crossed the line in 13th with a smile. One good thing about having plenty of disappointing races is that you can really appreciate when things go close to how you wanted them to.

Last year in the Grand Final I finished 38th place, demoralised and confused as to where it had went so wrong. This year definitely hasn’t been perfect and there have been some rough patches but I’m happy I managed to finish the season with a race I can be proud of. I started the year just wanting to crack back into the top 20’s after I struggled so much in 2014. To have 5 x top 20 WTS results in 2015 proves that persistence is key with any goal. I feel like I still have a lot I can improve on and small mistakes can still be corrected but sometimes all I need is a few little signs along the way remind me why I do it. This past weekend in Chicago was one of those moments.

A huge thank you to my family, friends, the Wollongong Wizards, my sponsors and Triathlon Australia for the support and opportunities this year – and of course my coach Jamie Turner.

I ended up ranked 15th in the World Triathlon Series for 2015. 15th in the world is pretty cool

Thanks,

Charlotte