Yokohama WTS

​The comm Games seemed like just Yesterday but already another race was on the horizon and it was time to travel to Yokohama for race three of the season. I have always enjoyed racing in Yokohama as I have had some good results there from the early years of my WTS career. 

Having now entered the Olympic points cycle (this being race one) as well as being in the Country that will host the next Olympics makes this event extra important. Performing in this environment is key to success as I work towards the most important race of my life, the 2020 Olympics. 
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I spent the weeks leading into this event at home in Tassie for the most part which is starting to become my favourite training location. I spent this period ticking things over trying to maintain my fitness and conditioning from the Comm Games and I was feeling ready to race again and looking forward to another chance in Yokohama. 

Delly Carr photography

It is always hard to know exactly what is going on once you’ve dived in and the swim is underway so I didn’t know where I was positioned but I did know it was still very bunched up because there were athletes everywhere. It was near impossible to find any space to swim, it was 1500m of fighting for positions and trying to stay above water. I had recognised a few good athletes around me on the last lap of the swim so I knew I would have some strong riders to ride with. As it turned out it was bunched up from the start and before not too long on the bike there was a bunch of 40+ athletes riding around the course. There is always some athletes in the bunch you know to stay away from, because they aren’t the safest but when there is that many people around it makes things a challenge. Anyway, I managed to stay upright and it was onto the run.
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The last time I raced a standard distance tri was Noosa back in November, so it had been a while. I wanted to run my own paces for this 10k, which normally wouldn’t be the best move but I am happy with my decision. I picked moments to extend myself in closing gaps to athletes which I had to do a few times, and after the final surge I ended up crossing the finishing line in second. I'm super happy with my silver medal performance and it's nice to stand on the podium in a standard distance race for the first time in a World Series event, something I hope to do a lot more of this season. 

I am back home in Tas now for a while before my next couple of races in the UK next month.

Tommy Zaferes photography