When triathlon debuted at the 2000 Sydney Olympics there were cynical mutterings about the coincidence that the newly added sport happened to be one at which the Australians excelled.
But the gold rush they had banked on didn't arrive and top medals have since gone to Canadians, New Zealanders, Swiss, Austrians and Germans. It wasn't until Beijing eight years later that an Australian topped the podium, Emma Snowsill, and their men are yet to even win a medal.
Ironically (and satisfyingly), it may be Britain that becomes the first host nation to claim gold in the triathlon, in 2012. Not only do we have the reigning women's world champion in Helen Jenkins but also the star male performer of this year's inaugural World Championship Series, Al Brownlee.
Converting form and talent into a gold medal in triathlon is incredibly difficult. Watching in Beijing, it struck me how brutal the sport is – not just physically (there are plenty of tough sports at the Games), but in the fact that there is one distance and one event to fight for.
Indoor swimmers get to choose from a wide programme of distances that suit their particular stroke or physiology. Athletes can focus on say, the 5,000 or 10,000 metres. In triathlon there is only one event and the best of that whole sport are in the same race.
Also, with three disciplines to perfect, there is plenty of scope for well-laid plans to go array. Anything can happen (and generally does) in the washing machine of bodies in an open-water swim.
The bike leg (punctures aside) requires the skills and tactics required by the best road cyclists. Plus the racers are simultaneously working to position themselves for the oncoming run – a competitive pace is needed of 10km in around 29 minutes.
This is staggeringly quick when you think the legendary Emil Zatopek's best was 28 min 54 sec and he hadn't just hopped off a bike.
Spaniard Javier Gomez went into the Beijing Olympics world No 1 having utterly dominated the sport for three years and ended up fourth. In the same race Al Brownlee aged just 20 came 12th. It was a turning point for both men. Gomez's Olympic chance seemed to have passed and yet Brownlees was just beginning, "After Beijing I knew I could live with the best in the world," he said. "This year is about racing them."
I doubt he'll be alongside Roger Federer and Tiger Woods to endorse a well-known brand of razor. With his baby-face, he's the Ole Gunnar Solskjær of triathlon.
Like a fine wine, endurance athletes get better with age (up to a point) so despite Brownlee's credentials as a former junior and reigning under-23 world champion the transition to compete with the big boys was supposed to take time.
But it only took until his first World Championship series race of the season in Madrid at the end of May for him to produce arguably the standout performance of the last decade.
Not because he beat the best in the world but the way he did it. Continuously attacking during the 40km bike ride, trying to break away and take the sting out of his opponents' legs and then in the first 2.5km of the 10km run, putting 20 seconds on everybody, including Gomez. He wasn't even featured in the official programme as one to watch.
Quietly spoken in his Yorkshire accent the 21 year-old can't put his finger on the new speed. "I'm not entirely sure where it's come from, another winter's training maybe I've done nothing massively different."
He might not know where the improvement came from but the lack of fear surely comes from his fell running background. He's the seven-time Yorkshire fell running champion which must make a 10km flat run seem like a warm-up. As he said: "Fell running teaches you not to be scared of the distance and just go for it."
But one swallow does not a Summer make. Can Brownlee back up that win? "In the past I got results by sneaking away. That's probably not going to happen now." He speaks quietly but knows they'll be watching him like a hawk, "if I try to make a break on the bike nobody's going to let me go."
At the next World Championship event in Washington DC in June he also won, leading from start to finish. However, his competitors did not make it easy for him and it wasn't until 2km to go when he broke clear.
But for him the experience was much better. "Washington was a million times harder than Madrid, I didn't feel brilliant and had to fight all the way, which somehow made it more worthwhile."
British Triathlon want him to keep that attitude, allowing him the freedom to attack when he wants rather than a strict race plan.
At the European Championships last weekend he came second to Gomez, who after missing out at the Olympics is determined not to lose his No 1 ranking.
It also suggested that Brownlee may need more time to recover between events compared to the older guys. "The long races take a lot out of me, maybe because I'm still young but I can hardly walk the next day," he said.
It is a sign of how far he's come this season that silver behind Gomez is a disappointment. He heads into Saturday's World Series race at Kitzbühel in Austria top of the rankings.
After a quick stop off in Germany it's on to the 2012 Olympic course in Hyde Park for round five on Aug 15 and no better time to put that host-nation curse to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment