HOW WAS IT FOR YOU? CAPITAL GAINS

Hoping to inspire underrepresented groups to try their hand at triathlon, Naomi Donkor sets her sights on a sub-2hr sprint at the London Triathlon, but things don't exactly go to plan...

- NAOMI DONKOR

I can't believe it. After so much training and such a good swim things are starting to unravel. I'm on the bike leg of the London Triathlon, the second event I've ever raced, I can't change gears on my mountain bike and I have no idea how to fix it. As I try to come to terms with the fact I'm going to be stuck at this high cadence for over half the ride I'm passed by person after person. It's a tough pill to swallow and even the iconic sights of the capital aren't enough to take my mind away from how unlucky I am. And things only get worse when I watch on with envy as the super-sprint athletes turn off for the end of their ride. I've still got another lap left. Have I even got that in me?

INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE

If someone told me this time last year that I'd have two triathlons under my belt, I wouldn't have believed them. Before training for and completing my first triathlon last year, I knew this was going to be the new sport for me. Despite getting Covid and having disrupted training in the build-up to the Blenheim Palace Triathlon I was also the only female in our group who completed it.

Because of this, I'm now making it my mission to inspire and notivate the global majority, bu more specifically young black girls and women. I want them to know that they too can take on the challenge and compete in triathlons despite the lack of representation of people within the sport who look like us.

BADU BACKGROUND

The opportunity to take part in the Blenheim Palace Triathlon came very randomly. Nana Badu, the CEO and founder of BADU Sports (and my PE teacher from primary school), called me in late July 2021 asking whether I wanted to participate in a triathlon. Little did I know that this call would change my life for the better, and I'm forever grateful for his encouragement, passion, determination and belief in me.