London World Championships / Eton European Junior ITU

 Just thought I'd start with;

I finished my first Junior World Championships!!

 On the 21^st of August, a blurry Wednesday afternoon, I woke up from a nap to an email buzzing on my phone. Taking a look at it, I couldn’t tell what was going on with words such as “good news” and “move athlete ** to start list…”

As I the words began to make sense as they structured in my head, I still spent about 10mins just sitting on my bed and looking around, confused.

Now my reaction would have been different at any other time, but obviously my system was still “booting up”, so I honestly had a very hard time deciding if I was still asleep or not. Pinching myself hurt, so I ran down stairs to my mum watching telly and danced about in front of it. She thought I was going a bit mental for a moment…

I originally had planned to join my team to fly to Bangkok for the Hua Hin Triathlon Queen’s Cup the exact weekend, but the plan changed drastically. I immediately had to inform my team members of the unexpected but exciting news, and chucked all the travel/race management over to them (sorry about that guys!). That very evening was just so happened to be Time Internet’s Open House (Our title sponsor), which men’t I had the great opportunity to spread the great news too all that support us. Afzal (Our boss) was definitely just as excited as I was! That evening upon arriving home, I got onto my laptop and immediately booked myself a ticket to Birmingham in less than a week.

Flying to Birmingham via KLM was great! (KL-Singapore-Paris-Birmingham), until I arrived to learn that they’d managed to leave my obvious, massive bike box and luggage at Singapore. I thought I did the smart thing of splitting things up between the luggages, but nope! I spent a day and a half without clothes (other than the ones I wore, obviously…). I got it all back the following afternoon, so I was able to rest easy.

I was fortunate enough to be provided a place to stay at Steve’s mum’s house in Redditch. It was a very warm and pleasant stay and I enjoyed every second of it. Thanks Joan and Jo Lumley!

Perfect long roads with scenic fields of green, sheep and cows occupied me throughout bike rides and runs.

Jess, Abby and Emily (Steve’s three nieces) were my favourite parts of the stay (other than stuffing myself to great food Joan cooked daily). It wasn’t long before I became Emily’s football coach (the youngest niece, and future football star), and played plenty during my off-times, in the back garden. She kicked my butt countless times.

George Goodwin took me down to Eton Lake on Friday for the race course familiarisation and race briefing for my very first European ITU Junior Cup. The next day Paul and George took me down for the race. George did great in his race, finishing in 7^th place (well done!) and then it was me turn to race.

Suddenly turning into a non-wetsuit swim, I struggled in the cold lake and swam out with a gap behind the chase group. Sprint hard out of the water and into a very quick transition managed to bridge the gap, but upon mounting, I found myself far behind the group with the legs just not responding. Another chase pack behind me caught up so I stuck to the back of it. Within half a lap, I was dropped by them again, with legs irresponsive. I rode on solo for another lap before Steve pulled me off, knowing that I was just absolutely shattered. That was the end of that.

The long travels and jet lag probably had a lot to do with how that race went, aside from the unfamiliar (but not new) experience of cold waters.

I was very glad to have raced it nevertheless, getting my system started and into the game, especially as I had been so relaxed before I knew I would be traveling this far...

That was race no.1 done.

As I continued to train using the facilities of Birmingham Uni, I felt myself get back into speed gradually. Running felt amazing (probably with such an amazing weather that lasted two weeks) as I felt a different gear driving me through the track. Swimming went better than I hoped as well, which was great.

I also joined BRAT Triathlon Club and took part in their small Aquathlon races, which was great fun. I think Malaysia could do with more of these small £4, “Race-&-BBQ” events!

On the weekend Steve took the challenge to compete in Ironman Wales, I trained together with Phil Wolfe. It was great and I was glad to have done so, as I’m sure it benefited both of us with the company.

“The Big Week” (London World, Sept 11^th – 14^th)”

We headed down to London on Wednesday and I gave the Serpentine Lake and had the race briefing later that day.

There had been some issues with trisuit design legitimacy, as my NF could not submit my current trisuit design.

I could not order any approved trisuits from my NF, as they only informed me of it the same time as my notice about the participation, so time was not a luxury I had. It was a relief that ITU had accepted my current trisuit as I had informed them of the issue in advance. Cheers for that TRIAM.

The word is cold. Utterly, Britishly cold. I had hoped too much for a wetsuit swim, thinking it would suit me better. The rain poured before my race which cooled things down even more just to play with the tropical kid a bit more. As we all lined up at the "Olympics Transition set-up", it all felt surreal. Watching it on television was one thing but seeing it all from the athlete's view was completely different! Then my name was called, and I jogged across the perfectly laid out blue carpet, and onto the pontoon start.

About 100m into the swim after the horn blast, I could immediately see a gap growing between the mass of splashes and I, but was hopeless with arms that felt like I had taken on 15kg weights each. It was the worst feeling I had ever experienced. It could have just been not being used to the wetsuit, the lack of movement with an additional compression top underneath, or the icy waters. I don’t know, but it was a bad time for that.

Coming out of the water 2^nd to last, I knew that my immediate goal would be to work hard to keep from being lapped. And I did, with good legs for once and a good ride time (considering I was alone..). The bike route was totally flat, designed for high speed. The tarmac was wet and slippery, putting more danger to the technical corners. There were some very bad crashes! I noticed a Japanese by the side picking his bike up from the side of the road, so I carried on not realising he would fly be me without giving me the chance to stick to his wheel for someone to work with (he never finished… Smart!). A different response could have had a different outcome.

I jumped of the bike and managed a 17:31min 5km run, which I was very pleased with (especially after riding all by myself the entire way!). It was good enough to step me up a placing, while others behind me called it quits. The roars from the crowd and cheers of support were nothing I had experienced before. It was spectacular. 

So there you go; furthest I had ever traveled, first European Cup, first wetsuit race, first World Championships, and first Malaysian Man to compete and complete a World Championships. Not a bad achievement in just one month, with only a week of notice in advance!

Thank you everyone for the great support that you have given, especially my friends, family, coach and all team sponsors as well as individual sponsors. 

These include Rudy Project Malaysia, CEEPO Bikes, Powerbar, Airasia X, FHL Sports, Kenanga, DSA, and our biggest support coming from TIME dotCom. Thanks Steve for the arrangement of everything! I’d have a full essay if I talked about it (It’s long enough as it is…).

I’ve now got FHL Circuit Cycling race next weekend, then Singapore ITU Triathlon Asian Cup (my first “proper” Elite category for full distance). The following month I will be racing around Hong Kong Disneyland (Lantau ITU Asian Cup), and hopefully Laguna Phuket Triathlon! Phuket would be a great place to just race for the joy and soak up the beach salt, sun, and everything amazing about Phuket.