Having only started competing internationally in triathlon last year, Hugo Milner shocked everyone in Japan last weekend, including himself, as he claimed victory at the World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki.

The Harvard Environmental Science and Public Policy graduate, who left behind a promising running career to switch to triathlon, had a rollercoaster season leading up to his win, but took the opportunity with both hands last Saturday.

Sharing his thoughts after the race, Milner revealed how he implemented the lessons learnt from the World Triathlon Cup in Tongyeong the previous weekend, backed himself on the run and how he plans to use this success as a springboard to bigger and better results next year.

Practice makes perfect

After a disappointing performance at the World Triathlon Cup Tongyeong in South Korea the week before Miyazaki, Milner was in disbelief following the race in Japan, where he finally managed to put together the type of performance he knew he was capable of.

“Today was a really great result for me, finishing first at the World Cup. It was quite a big shock to be honest, because last week I had one of my worst races ever in terms of position, finishing 52nd in Tongyeong.

“I knew I was really fit going into both races, but unfortunately last week I had a bad swim and transition which just really cost me the race. This week I just tried to really focus on a strong transition and have a good swim too.”

Recounting the opening stages of the race, the Derby native had a great swim and on one of those days where everything seemed to go right, avoided the washing machine phenomenon typically associated with open water triathlon races.

“The swim in Miyazaki really suited me, there were no waves at all and it was really nice, smooth and calm water and it was a non-wetsuit swim. It was strange, because for the first time in a triathlon I don’t think anyone came close to hitting me or pushing me, so it was quite an enjoyable swim in some ways.

“Despite my bad starting position because of my ranking, I was able to move across to the left hand side during the swim, so I swam the shortest route possible and then really nailed the transition.

“The first two kilometres of the bike needs to be stronger, as I let a few people go and if I had gone with them, I could have been even further up the field and won by more, but generally it was a good ride. I felt strong and powerful and moved up to the front of the group a lot more than I would have last year.”

Bike for show, run for dough

Off the bike, Milner found himself with plenty of work left to do, as the leaders had more than a minute lead up front. However, with personal bests of 13:44 for 5000m and 28:36 for 10,000m to his name, the World #100 was confident he could make his way back into the fold.

“I had people shouting out the time gaps when I came off the bike and went out on the run. I was 68 seconds down on the leaders coming out of T2 and I knew of the quality of athletes at the front, that they were strong swim-bikers, but they would be running 30-31 minutes for the 10km.

“I knew if I could have a good run, I would run either in the 29 minute range or low 30 minutes and I could make up a minute. Chasing them down, I was making up around 20 seconds per lap and as I was doing the calculations in my head, I realised that if I continued at this pace I would catch them and overtake them.” 

Running 29:33 on what he described as a course that wasn’t “ideal for running fast”, Milner took the tape by four seconds, as he achieved his best ever result and put his hat in the ring for a shot at Olympic selection next year in Paris.

“I felt really good on the run, a few people tried to tag along with me, but a lot of them dropped off and I just ran strongly to the line. On that course, 29:30 doesn’t sound that fast, but if you saw the course we ran on, it was pretty twisty and so it wasn’t ideal for running fast.”

Underlining what this result meant for him, the 25 year old was happy to report that he is feeling more and more like a triathlete, with the win a big boost to his motivation ahead of a tough block of winter training.

“I am definitely learning with each race, gaining experience and feeling a lot more confident about swimming and biking in triathlon and starting to feel a bit less like a runner and more like a triathlete, so the confidence after today has grown massively.

“I have got to use this race result to motivate me through some more winter training and just come back next year a lot stronger, a lot more confident and just see where it takes me.”