American star Katie Zaferes perfectly demonstrated – and then articulated – the fine margins of elite triathlon at WTCS Hamburg over the weekend.
The dominant world champion in 2019 and the winner of individual and relay medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Zaferes has returned to the sport following the birth of her first child, Kimble.
And in the Super Sprint format in Hamburg she qualified for finals day with relative ease – and then smoothly made it through when 30 athletes were whittled down to 20.
She was right in the mix during the second stage of the final too, only for a costly moment going into T2 when she lost control of her bike.
Day of contrasts
Writing about the experience on her Instagram feed, she said: “I suppose something I love about triathlon is when all the pieces come together it feels like magic. However on the flip side when things don’t click it feels quite the opposite.
“For finals day I had both experiences. The first stage where I felt smooth and controlled throughout. To the second stage where it all felt more disjointed and erratic, magnified by me taking myself out coming into T2 which created a big deficit going out onto the run.
“It’s easy to come up with things that went wrong and places I didn’t execute in Stage 2. And hard to acknowledge that I’m still working back towards being consistent in being able to have a good race no matter what. I know I will get there again.”
‘I can see all the pieces are there’
And that determination to return to the very top was underlined by her forward-looking response rather than spending too much time dwelling on what might have been.
She added: “There was a big contrast of feelings as I went from feeling where I need to be and then about 45 minutes later I felt so far off that. It’s funny how much can change in such a short time.
“My body is fine, mentally I’m a bit sad and frustrated. However, I’m nearing the end of my disappointed, woe is me time frame and I can see all the pieces are there so now I’m just working on putting them together again.
“Time to… head to the mountains to get in a solid block of training with JFT crew buddies.”
Next up race-wise for Zaferes is set to be WTCS Sunderland where she’s one of four American women on the current start list alongside 2016 Olympic champion Gwen Jorgensen, Gina Sereno and Erika Ackerlund.
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