On Monday 15th
August 2011, I started my journey to Lausanne, Switzerland where I represented
Suriname at the 2011 World Triathlon Championships. I was part of a mixed relay
team which consisted of two boys and two girls. The four of us along with our
coach left Suriname Monday night and arrived in the Netherlands, the next day
around midday. We stayed in the Netherlands for two days and left for
Switzerland Thursday afternoon.
Our team
arrived in the Geneva late in the evening and took the train to Lausanne. When
we arrived at the hotel we met with some of the teams that were also staying
there. They had never heard of Suriname and were fascinated to meet us. The
next day we went to the venue of the competition which was along Lake Geneva in downtown Lausanne.
The world championship race was on Saturday and featured elite athletes.
We went to watch the race and were amazed by the extremely high level of performance. On the next day ,Sunday 21st August
2011, we competed in the ITU Team Triathlon World Championships race against
thirty-two other teams from around the world.We were the only team from South
America. Great Britain won the race. Ou The Suriname team ,however, did not
finish race because we were disqualified.
Although I was
upset after the race I did not let that spoil the rest of my trip. I had an
amazing time on the trip and learned that if I wanted to reach the top, I would
have to work really hard to get there. The trip to Switzerland gave me the
opportunity to meet and compete against top professional athletes from around
the world. These elite athletes were paid for racing by their sponsors. Most of them were between the ages of
twenty-one and twenty-nine and had given up their education to become
professionals. They had been training for many years while our team had only
trained for the last four months. We spoke to them about their training schedule and also become friends with some of
them. We realized that first we would have to be outstanding in Caribbean
competition before we could go back to compete at the world level of
competition. The trip was an experience that opened my eyes and helped me
understand the level of performance I would have to attain.
The Suriname
team left Lausanne on Sunday evening and
went to Geneva where we slept for the night. The next morning we were on the flight
to the Netherlands. We arrived in the Netherlands but were delayed there for
the whole day. We left the Netherlands12.30 a.m. to make our way to Suriname
and arrived home around 3’o clock in the morning.
Written by:
Gabriel Grauwde GAC 2012
