Last weekend we had our first major test of the Olympic season.
The World Team Championships — where a country can send five athletes, with the top three from each counting towards overall scores — was held in Rome this year, on only four month’s notice.
Originally, the event was scheduled for Russia, but with the ongoing doping saga, and subsequent disqualification of the entire Russian team, they were rightly stripped of the event.
While I see myself as more of a 50 km walker now I elected for the 20 km as we had a very good chance of reaching the podium.
My training since Flagstaff, Arizona had been really good. I was confident going into the race that I belonged in the lead group and that was exactly where I put myself, along with two of my teammates.
Unfortunately, a lot of people thought they belonged in that group and the pack during the first half of the race was the largest pack I’ve ever been in (50 people at 5 km), which on a narrow course with a lot of turns, made positioning pivotal.
After a few kilometres of missing drink bottles and being trampled going into the turns, I decided the best place for me to be was at the front. So, I quickly made a move from mid-pack right into the lead.
With the early pace being fairly conservative, this wasn’t a costly move, but I could feel I was already near my limit. A move from the group came just after 10 km and I wasn’t able to respond, and lost contact.
Seeing my hopes of a top eight literally walk away from me left me feeling sorry for myself for about a kilometre before I switched to a team focus.
With Inaki Gomez and Ben Thorne still comfortably at the front, I knew I needed to catch as many of the stragglers ahead of me as I could.
In the second half of the race, I was able to limit how much I slowed down, which allowed me to catch a number of people. I moved from 26th at 10 km to finish 16th, a respectable result given my dissatisfaction with my race.
I knew I was capable of way more and I feel like it was a wasted opportunity to have that big breakthrough, but knowing I can have a mediocre race and finish in the top 16 gives me a lot of confidence moving forward, particularly in knowing that I belong in that lead group!
Inaki and Ben managed to finish in spectacular fashion, with Ben getting a personal best and finishing fifth and Inaki coming in seventh.
That was good enough for team silver, behind China, a mighty juggernaut in race walking.
That three guys from Vancouver could even compete with such a powerhouse shows the effect of what not putting limits on yourself can do. When Race Walk West (Gerry Dragomir’s club, where we all train) was formed, the mission statement was “complete world domination” and people thought we were a joke…
No one is laughing anymore.
