PODIUM PLACE: Tayler Reid and his third-place medal from an ITU world championship race in the Czech Republic. Picture by Liam Clayton
TAYLER Reid is just over four weeks away from the biggest race of his life.
The Gisborne triathlete will contest the ITU world cup sprint race in Tongyeong, South Korea. It could be a Commonwealth Games trial event.
Barring injury, Ryan Sissons has booked his place in the New Zealand team to compete in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, in April.
That leaves one spot for 20-year-old Reid to target in a team that will comprise two men and two women.
However, Dan Hoy, Sam Ward and Tony Dodds also want to join Sissons.
“I want to be the first Kiwi across the line in Korea,” said Reid, who is coached by former professional triathlete Stephen Sheldrake.
“I don’t want to leave anything to chance. I don’t want to give the selectors any reason not to pick me.
“If I’m the first Kiwi in Korea, I’ll have done my bit, then it’s down to the selectors. I don’t want to be lying in bed at night wondering, ‘What if? Could I have done more?’.
“I remember as a five-year-old at Mangapapa School writing in a book that I wanted to compete at the Olympics, and the Commonwealth Games is next to the Olympics.
“I can’t remember why I wrote that, I just did, and now I could be only one race away from making that come true.”
Before turning to triathlons, Reid was “into all sports — judo, surf lifesaving, swimming and running”.
“Around the age of 11, I entered my first national triathlon and won. After that I loved it.”
A strong swimmer and cyclist, Reid has been steadily improving his run since then. After being based in Spain for five weeks, training and competing, he earned his first ITU world championship podium finish when he came third in the Czech Republic two weeks ago.
Race in RotterdamHe followed that with 11th at the final world champs Olympic-distance race in Rotterdam last weekend.
While he was disappointed, he realised — after talking to Sheldrake and looking back on the race — he could have done nothing more on the day.
Reid led the under-23 men’s race out of the 1500-metre swim in 18 minutes 31 seconds, and coming out of transition was in a 10-strong group at the front of the field.
“I wanted another podium finish but on the bike only two of us worked to stay away.
“In the Czech Republic, everyone in the lead group was committed to the break and worked hard to stay away from the strong runners.
“At Rotterdam, it was really frustrating. It was like no one cared about getting on to the podium.
“In triathlons, tactics play a huge part and — for whatever reason — the break group were happy to get caught, which then suited the runners.”
Frenchman Raphael Montoya unleashed a 31:07 effort for the 10-kilometre run to edge out compatriot Dorian Coninx for the title ahead of Australian Luke Willian, who overcame a 15-second penalty.
Reid has not competed in many full Olympic-distance races, so paced himself over the 10km run in cold conditions.
His 33:21 effort for the run left him in 11th place, two minutes behind the winner.
“One thing I was pleased about was beating the guy who won in the Czech Republic,” Reid said.
Elliott impressedNew Zealand high-performance director Mark Elliott was impressed with Reid’s performance.
“He has another year in this category and when he develops his run, he could have a big future.”
Reid said the next three weeks would be “training four to six hours a day for six, maybe seven, days a week before tapering off in the last week to two and a half hours a day until the day before the race”.
“Stephen works out all my training schedules but I know I’ll be hammering myself,” Reid said.
“As Stephen said, most of the race is done before you get to the start line. I want to leave nothing to chance.
“That’s why I’ll be telling myself towards the end of every training session, when the mind starts finding excuses to give up, that this is for world champs and possibly Commonwealth Games.
“I’m not nervous now but I will be closer to the race. It’s also about keeping the emotions in check and not letting the occasion get to me.”
Finally, what about North Korea and their nuclear weapons testing and missile launches?
“I’m not thinking about not going, and I’m sure Triathlon New Zealand will be getting updates on what is happening. They wouldn’t put us in any danger if they thought it wasn’t safe to travel.”