{"id":12066,"date":"2021-07-27T19:21:06","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T19:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.incirliseviye.com\/?p=12066"},"modified":"2021-07-27T19:21:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T19:21:06","slug":"brits-enjoy-top-10-success-at-challenge-bahrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=12066","title":{"rendered":"Brits enjoy top-10 success at Challenge Bahrain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brits once again cluttered the top-10, with Rachel Joyce finishing second, Jodie Swallow third, Tim Don fourth and Jodie Stimpson eighth in her first half-distance race.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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At time of writing, 220 is waiting to speak to the podium sextet, but we managed to grab Don and Stimpson before the recovery tent came a calling\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

With his luggage only turning up at 10.30pm the night before the race, Don had spent his \u2018taper\u2019 buying new kit. Further still, he was recovering from a calf injury, which had seen him reduce his run training to just 30km a week.<\/p>\n

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Nonetheless, the now-seasoned middle-distance podium botherer and 220 columnist would have a strong day in the Kingdom of Bahrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough race. The swim wasn\u2019t too fast, got in a good position, and then the first 30k of the bike I was like \u2018where\u2019s this tailwind that everyone\u2019s talking about?!\u2019 And then Sebastian [Kienle] went past us, he was just crazy fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut on a course like that we were spread out so early, so I just rode my own race. I ended up with Nils Frommhold and Luke Bell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure how my run was going to go, I\u2019ve had a pulled calf. So I\u2019m really happy with fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Athletes were treated to a safari on the half-marathon run course as it weaved its way through the Al Areen Wildife Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw camels, gazelle and two ostrich ran in front of me! Ha ha!\u201d exclaimed a delighted Don. \u201cThis kind of event is so unique and is done so well, so to be a part of it is fantastic. I hope this kind of event stays, cause they\u2019re great for the sport, great for Bahrain and great for the athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bahrain was Don\u2019s last race of the year, rounding off a successful season for the former ITU world champ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve podiumed in every race I\u2019ve done this year except for this one, so I can\u2019t complain. With that kind of field, those kind of high stakes, everyone was coming here to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEW KID ON THE HALF-DISTANCE BLOCK<\/p>\n

Stimpson, meanwhile, was trying on the half-iron distance for size, a challenge set her by her coach Darren Smith as a pre-Christmas hit-out and before knuckling down for what will hopefully be her Rio Olympics qualifying year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite nice not to have to fight so much in the swim, like you do in the ITU field,\u201d enthused Stimpson at the finish line. \u201cIt started really fast so it took me a bit to get on feet. I think I was with Rachel Joyce, which I was happy with. But I was quite happy to just come out as I know how fast the other girls are.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the bike, all I had in my head was [coach] Darren [Smith] saying \u2018pace, pace, pace\u2019. So I just had to concentrate. I think knowing the field was a bit of an error, as I was sat behind Mary Beth Ellis and that\u2019s when the front four got away. But I was feeling fine, I just couldn\u2019t do anything about it at that point. They\u2019d gone. And then as the bike went on, obviously the leg\u2019s started to hurt. I got to 60k and I was like, \u2018okay, now I\u2019m hurting a bit. I just can\u2019t cope, just hold on now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI got onto the run and I felt okay, and I pulled in Caroline [Steffen] and ran with her. I couldn\u2019t have done any faster anyway. The pace was as fast as I could go. And then I got to just before 20k, and me and Caroline shook hands and said \u2018good job\u2019. We\u2019d pushed each other through. At 20k, though, she had more legs than me and I started to get a stitch, and cramp up. Oh I was in all sorts of trouble that last k!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhen Darren first set this challenge I just wanted to finish the bloody thing! Maybe get top 10. But these girls, they\u2019ve done numerous ones of these, they now how to pace, they know the field. To come into this field, I\u2019m lining up next to my idols really. They\u2019re people who I watch Kona in awe of.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I won\u2019t be leaving the ITU circuit anytime soon. This was a challenge, this was something new. I\u2019ve got Rio to focus on. It was a good hit out before Christmas. And now I\u2019m so excited to go home!\u201d<\/p>\n

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(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brits once again cluttered the top-10, with Rachel Joyce finishing second, Jodie Swallow third, Tim Don fourth and Jodie Stimpson eighth in her first half-distance race. Advertisement At time of writing, 220 is waiting to speak to the podium sextet, but we managed to grab Don and Stimpson before the recovery tent came a … <\/p>\n

Read more “Brits enjoy top-10 success at Challenge Bahrain”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}