World Sprint Duathlon Championships, Pontevedra, 21 Jun 2025

If fairytale races exist, then the Age Group World Championships Duathlon was my fairytale… Once upon a time in Pontevedra, Spain, there was a girl was a pair of running trainers and a bike…I was doing the sprint distance race so I set off on the first 5k run and got into my stride. On the lead up to the race I wasn’t particularly impressed by my running so I wasn’t expecting great things.  The route weaved round Pontevedra and before I knew it I was getting ready to re-enter the athletics stadium to grab my bike. My wave was the 40-54 year old age groups, some women had set off on the run at a really impressive pace so going into T1 I knew there was a group of women ahead and I was in the second ‘batch’.

The bike leg was hilly with a long, undulating uphill section before the top third of the climb which was pretty steep. After a bit of trading places at the bottom of the hill, I found myself in a group with three other British girls, all in my age group. My whole focus on the bike was to not get dropped and not cause an accident! Before Pontevedra I had raced in two other draft legal duathlons, unfortunately I didn’t get in a group on either occasion so my experience of racing like this was zero! I watched and listened to what the other 3 Brits were doing and after a couple of kilometres felt confident to start taking my turns on the front. We were steam rolling up the hill, overtaking loads of 18-39 year old athletes who had started in the wave before us. For the first time I felt kinda like an actual cyclist! The other 3 were very strong on the bike but I wasn’t being dropped so I relaxed a bit into the race. At the turnaround point I went to the front of the group and sped down the hill. I even smiled to myself at one point as it was a really fun downhill, big sweeping bends that you could pedal all the way through and no need to brake. With about 2k to go I was second wheel and with the front girl setting the pace, we managed to gain a few seconds on the other two into T2.

I tried to transition from the bike to the second run as quickly as I could. Unfortunately, I was 11 seconds slower than the British girl I had entered T2 with so she started the 2.5k second run with what felt like a hefty lead. About halfway through there was a moment which changed the outcome of the race for me. There was a tight turnaround at which point I glanced to the right and saw the next GB girl hot on my heels! I thought she’d catch me as I felt like I was running so poorly but I told myself to make it difficult for her and in doing so, for the first time, I started getting closer to the GB girl in front of me. The race was really taking its toll by now but I was so close to the finish line. I found it really hard to tell where I was in the race, there was a lot of people traffic from the previous wave. Before the race, I thought if I could nick tenth place, I’d be doing really well.  I’m not sure why but as I entered the athletics stadium for the final 200m, I thought “what if, on the off chance, she’s third and you’re currently fourth”. I knew I’d be a nightmare to be around if that happened so I closed the gap on the bend and as we hit the blue carpet, on the home straight, I emptied the tank and ran as fast as my long, lanky legs could carry me! As I sat down on the floor in a heap, completely spent, I heard the announcer say my name and “silver medallist”. I couldn’t believe it, had I really just won a silver medal at a World Championships? It really was the race of my life, it was so close between myself 3rd, 4th and 5th with only a few seconds here and there. The other 3 British girls were fantastic athletes and pushed me all the way. On a different day, I could have easily been 5th or lower. So…with a bit of luck on your side, I think fairytales can actually come true…and they all lived happily ever after…until the next race when it starts all over again!

 Laura Allen