Double Olympian triathlete Kate Roberts shares her Commonwealth Games experience with us and she looks at what lies ahead.
Kate Roberts. Photo: www.kateroberts.com
I was very proud and honoured to represent South Africa in Glasgow, Scotland, at my second Commonwealth Games.
My first taste of a major Games were the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.
I was then a young and pretty in-experienced 23 year old triathlete but I was fortunate to be able to gain the opportunity to experience a major Games at this level, where you have a big village setup of many countries, with athletes from different sports right in front of the media eye and this stood me in good stead for my two Olympic Games that followed in 2008 and 2012.
Triathlon at the Commonwealths ranks really high as you compete against the Australians, Great Britain, (made up of England, Wales and Scotland) New Zealanders and the Canadians, which bar a few other countries are the best known triathlon nations in the world and they certainly don’t go down without a fight.
I took part in the individual event on July 24 and then the mixed team relay event on July 26.
I unfortunately came down in a crash during the bike segment of the individual event, it was a repeat of my London 2012 Olympic Games experience and although I was gutted that I had to fall at yet another major games, at least there was hope and a second chance in the mixed team relay two days later.
As a team we believed and knew that if each of us performed to our full potential we were in with a real chance for a medal. Most of the other countries had written us off and gave us no hope of achieving a medal but that did not matter to us, we were the underdogs and fancied our chances even if no one else did.
I quickly put the disappointment of the crash behind me and threw all my efforts into prepping myself to get team South Africa the best possible start in the team mixed relay.
I was under a lot of pressure to make sure that I performed to my full potential, as a slip up in my swim or the bike leg would cause the entire team to be out of the race completely and to be honest it would have been completely devastating for me to let the team down.
I did the best possible job that I could and stayed with the leading girls for the swim and bike disciplines, I unfortunately lost some time on my running leg but we were confident that with Henri Schoeman’s strong swim and bike combination, he would put us in contention again and he did a superb job of this and managed to give Gillian Sanders the perfect chance to race with the Australian and Canadian teams.
With regards to my future. I would really like to compete at my third Olympic Games in Rio, 2016, and have a last crack at it without falling off my bike. It will require an immense amount of hard work, motivation and living a life of nothing else but train, eat, sleep and repeat to get me there and I am willing and committed to throwing my heart and soul into it. – Kate Roberts
