Forth Valley College’s EPOS Coordinator Robert Myler represented Great Britain for the first time recently at the European Multisport Championship in Portugal.
Robert who is also the President of Grangemouth Triathlon Club and one of the organisers of the College’s Running Club, travelled out to Coimbra for the Sprint (5K run, 20K bike, 2.5K run) and the Standard distance duathlon (10K run, 40K bike, 5K run) Masters (50-80 years) events, between 15-22 June.
After an impressive first appearance for the GB Team the next stop will be the World Duathlon Championships in Townsville, Queensland, Australia in August.
Robert was happy to describe his adventure: “I was delighted to qualify last year for this years European Multisport Championships in Coimbra. This Championships was a festival of championships from Long distance Triathlon, Cross Duathlon and Triathlon, Aquathlon, Aqua Bike and Duathlons with several other swimming events carried out within a 10 day period.
“I qualified for both the Sprint (5K run, 20K bike, 2.5K run) and Standard distance duathlon (10K run, 40K bike, 5K run) and travelled out on the Friday 14 June on a 6am flight, landing in Porto after a two-hour delay, and picked up a hire car to drive down to Coimbra.
“Friday was a rush to head to the Team hotel to attend the race briefing followed by the team picture. After this, I headed to the race venue to register, pick up my race number, return to the hotel, get my gear ready, and return to where I had to rack my bike into transition. A busy day ended with a quick catch-up with some friends, dinner, and early to bed.
“At 5am on Saturday 15 June my alarm sounded and it was up for a quick breakfast, before heading out to the race venue for the Sprint Duathlon. The transition area would only be open from 6am to 7.30am to allow last-minute changes. My race would be at 8.30am, so I got a chance to watch some of the earlier waves of athletes in action (the younger ones).
“At 8.25 am our wave would be called. The atmosphere was incredible to stand with all those other GB athletes and athletes from all over Europe. When the music stopped the nerves kicked in and five seconds later we were off.
“It was a tough race with so many fast athletes from around the continent. I finished 19th in Europe so was really pleased with this!
“The next day would be the same format, but it would be double the distance and thankfully it was overcast so wasn’t as warm as the day before. Thankfully.
I was really pleased with how I felt throughout this race, as I did feel I hadn’t fully recovered form the previous day’s race. I still managed to finish 11th in this event and was very happy with this performance
“This was my first outing in the GB Team kit and it was a very proud moment to be on that starting line!
“I learned a lot and will take many positives from this. The next stop will be the World Duathlon Championships in Townsville, Queensland, Australia in August. I will be racing at both distances again, but with a day’s rest in between. I can’t wait to see what I can do in down under!”
