Bermuda Junior Elite Female Triathlete Erica Hawley was the first Bermudian to compete in the 2017 International World Triathlon Grand Final in Rotterdam.
After a delay of an hour due to weather and in a field of 64 competitors Hawley finished 40th clocking a time of 1:05.47.
Hawley competed in the Junior Women’s Race that got underway in water temperatures of 63.1F.
Hawley came out of the water in a time of 10.49, she was 1:05 behind the leader Fuka Sega from Japan, Hawley was in 41st at that time.
Hawley then recorded a time of 33.14 on the Bike, before closing out with a Run time of 19.29.
Taylor Knibb from the United States won the race with a time of 1:01.22, Kate Waugh from Great Britain was second in 1:01.38 and Sega finished 3rd clocking a time of 1:02.05.
Following the race Hawley said, “This being my last year at worlds and I would've hoped for more. I had amazing preparation going into this and was feeling strong. After the long travel here I arrived with a sore throat which was far from ideal but I told myself to push through it, and I wouldn't blame that for my end result.”
Hawley went on to say, “I had a solid swim, bike and run and at the end of the day it was positioning and the minute mishaps that differentiated 10th-40th. I felt pretty solid on the swim, had a relatively slow transition and then was onto the bike. The course presented a lot of challenges by nature with so many turns and narrow widths that you always had to be focused. I found it hard to move my position on the bike which could've been due to being extra cautious from a couple of crashes over the summer (I think I need to switch to Mountain Biking this winter to get some mad skills like Flora ;)).”
Hawley went on to say, “I got off the bike near the end of my pack and then tried to hold strong for the run. I ran 19:30 which a year ago would've been really good but considering my fitness now I was truly disappointed. I felt strong and the time was way off what I have actually been running - maybe because I was feeling a bit under the weather, maybe because everyone else was running well too,”
Hawley concluded, “After the race was done I reminded myself that I'm at the world champs with the best of the best and I still finished my best position at a world champs (I've had some pretty bad races here haha). Now it's just onto the next one - the season isn't over yet and I'm ready to redeem this performance as I feel like I am physically and mentally fitter than the outcome of today.”
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