Yo, what an epic race and weekend that was. completely blown away. I don’t know how I do it but I always seem to take mental notes. And since I do not want to share ” mental notes ” because that would make me sound like I am surgeon, so I would like to share my bouquet of impressions with you since that sounds a bit nicer although its the same:

I would like to congratulate everyone for taking part and completing their own Tri Yas. Well done! 🙂

How cool does the Viceroy Hotel look at night?

Events like this would not be possible without the vision and the engagement of Daman, the main sponsor of Tri Yas by ActiveLife Daman. Thank you, Dr Sven Rothe and your team for supporting one of the premier triathlon events in this country and the region.

Tri Yas held on the Yas Marina F1 circuit has established itself as an iconic race in one of the best settings available anywhere. It has continuously developed since its first edition in 2011 and will continue to improve for sure. Big thanks to the Yas Marina Corporation, Nick McElwee and Kahn Luthiger and their whole team for putting up this event. Great job!

the future was participating in the event as well. I missed the kids duathlon, but I am sure they went hard at it as well. The juniors like Leanne Fanoy, Jordan Janszen, Paul Mueller and Sam O’Shea and the other juniors all had great races and showed that the next wave is slowly developing. well done and keep at it!

apart from the Juniors, Tri Yas also showcases how triathlon has developed in this country from a performance point of view. I remember in the first edition in 2011 there was only 1 time just under 2:00 on the Olympic distance and this year we had pretty much the top 5 under 2:00 and the top 10 within 2:05. That is quite remarkable and encouraging for an almost exclusively amateur field and I am sure it motivates everyone to be even faster next time around. It motivates me for sure! Thanks and well done to all the competitors and also to the other podium guys Omar, Mac and top 10 finishers Garry, Luke, Kenneth, Russ, Paul and David. Super stuff guys! 😉

Tri Yas 2014 was also the first UAE Nationals Triathlon Championships and Mohammed al Muhairi won with a very respectable 2:13:00. Mabrook, habibi! mashalla! well done!

the ladies Olympic distance race went to Lisa Hancock.

the male sprint race went to Jordan and Paul Stevens, same time both I think.

the ladies sprint race went to Heather McKenzie.

TRI Dubai and the Abu dhabi tri club battled it out for the club honours, but i don’t exactly know who came on top there! but well done to everyone!

as for the course, this year with a slight change, but not any less fun, was true to the distance ( swim ca. 1580m, bike 39k, run 10k on the money ) and well supervised and orchestrated by Race Director Troy Watson and his team. Super job guys! 😉 Tri Yas is an honest test! Also big thank you to all the volunteers who sacrificed part of their day off to support all of us in our racing! big thank you!

Bob Babbitt also attended the event and it was cool to meet him and to talk for a little bit. For all of those who don’t know who he is, he is a heavy hitter in the triathlon media world and is co founder of the Competitor Group, publishers of the TRIATHLETE magazine in the US. His word has weight.

Also there was a visit from a team from the sister event the Nation’s TRI in DC who came all the way over to compete in Tri Yas. hope you had a good time guys and girls! 🙂

the quote of the event came from Nick McElwee, who played on the recently released movie called Rush featuring the story of the 1976 F1 season between Nikki Lauda and James Hunt, translated into the Tri Yas event meant a ” duel ” between Omar Nour and myself. I thought that was quite good and hit the point.

As for the race itself, the 28th of February for me will be one of my brain freeze days in 2014. took a wrong turn on the swim, swam ca. 40m in the wrong direction, turned around, swam the 40m back, and that added 1 minute to the swim right there. But I got no one to blame but myself, I did not listen properly to Troy Watson’s swim brief. i stayed positive and forgot about it, took back 20secs per lap on Omar, who had ca. 1:25 lead after the swim and on lap 5 of 8, but had to recollect my thoughts on how many laps i already did, slowed down to wait and ask how many laps remaining. after i did that, i got off with a ca. 30 sec advantage into T2, and had a very solid and fast run and extended my lead to the finish line to take my second Tri Yas victory after 2012. very special this one and i will remember it for a long time.

I hope to see you guys out there at other races and have fun with because that’s what it’s all about! 😉

Peace

Olivier