Posted: August 13, 2004

Triathlon: Creditable Results for Mifsud Bonnici in the UK

In the space of a few days, leading female triathlete Maria Mifsud Bonnici, twice finished second as she took part in three high-level events during what has become a customary stint in England for the Birkirkara St. Joseph athlete.

Her first competition was the Midsussex Triathlon, a popular event in which over 250 athletes took part.

As the swim was based in a swimming pool, the start had to be staggered with the athletes starting 15 seconds from each other. Mifsud Bonnici made a fast start catching up the athlete ahead of her within the first 150m but was held up by the same athlete who would not allow her to overtake obstructing her way every time she tried desperately to do so.

Annoyed about this incident, Mifsud Bonnici was determined to make up for it in the bike section and she managed to complete the 25km course in 44 minutes 50 seconds, to produce the best female bike split. Unfamiliar with the course, during the run Mifsud Bonnici collided with one of the marshals who was slightly slow in directing the way. This caused her to lose decisive seconds that eventually denied her victory in view of the fact that she finished just three seconds behind the eventual winner.

This result, however, strengthened her determination to do well in the second race, the Worthing Olympic Distance. The weather contrived to make the race even harder with rough seas and strong winds. Despite not being used to swim in rough murky waters, Mifsud Bonnici came out of the swim with the chasing group after the leaders.

Out on the bike Mifsud Bonnici found it very tough up the hills and facing the strong cold wind and her bike time could not match that of Niki Treacy, very well known in the UK for her cycling prowess. In fact Treacy's bike split matched very well that of the top men. After such a tough and long bike section the 10km run was not an easy task but Mifsud Bonnici reached transition in 3rd place less than a minute behind second place so she set sights on 2nd place and produced a creditable run to cross the finish line in second place though still not enough to beat the winner.

After such exertion, there were doubts whether she would be able to take part in the final scheduled race, the Bournemouth International Olympic Distance. However, Mifsud Bonnici decided to take the challenge and take the race as another valuable experience. Later however she did admit it was harder than expected especially since she had to face very cold, windy and wet conditions.

The swim course had to be changed on the day of the race due to poor sea conditions, the start of the swim being moved to 1.5km away from transition for a straight swim heading to Bournemouth Pier. But walking down to the start in bare feet, and hence not having time to warm up at all before the race begun, was detrimental to Mifsud Bonnici.

The 9°C wind chill and rain meant it was going to be a tough affair. Nonetheless, she set out at a good strong pace in the swim exiting the water in a group of about 15 women out of the 130 women in the field.

But on the bike, Mifsud Bonnici was not prepared for such cold and wet conditions and being inexperienced in cycling in the rain was of no help. The cold coupled with the tiredness she was feeling ceased her leg muscles up and she could not perform in her strongest discipline.

Reaching the transition area in 24th place after a 1hr 12 minute bike, the 10km run was more of a psychological battle for Mifsud Bonnici to complete the race. Her run was faster than a few women ahead of her, and after a 44 minute run she gained 6 places to finish 18th, an acceptable position but below her capabilities.