Fluids Triathlon Worlds Squad Results – Our best yet

Its been a big 6weeks for our squad program and athletes who represented their countries at the 3 main world championships, 70.3 Worlds in South Africa, ITU Worlds on the Gold Coast and Ironman Worlds in Hawaii.

As a coach I have been preparing athletes for World Level racing for over 2decades and whilst we have accumulated close to 20 podiums (Top 3) at championships including 8 Gold medals over the years, the depth and high finishes in our 2018 results from our athletes across the 3 main distances of Triathlon collectively has been our most successful.

Fluid had 13athletes represent us at the three events, there were lots of PB and breakthrough results but the three below are our highest finishing places at each event.

• It started in in September in Port Elizabeth, South Africa at Ironman 70.3 Worlds with Jenny Zenker taking the Silver medal in the 30-34age group. Jenny was the only Australian age group female to podium in the race.

• Then 2weeks later at the ITU World Championships in Queensland, Laura Torres won the Gold medal in 30-34age at the ‘premiere’ Standard Distance Triathlon. Laura was the third fastest age group female overall.

• Finally a month later in Kona at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, Lesley West finished 14^th in 30-34age and 6^th Aussie female age grouper home in only her second Ironman. It was such a strong sustained performance all day against very experienced competition.

To see the consistently high results over all the distances of Triathlon that we fielded athletes in at World level I think is the programs most comprehensive result to date.

The Fluid program has always prided itself on its versatility and ability to produce results for any distance be it Sprint, 70.3 or Ironman and this year’s Worlds results show just that.

It takes all of our coaching experience to develop training programs with the right mix of training load and volume for each athlete we coach at every distance of the sport.

BUT it also is about fostering the right training environment for our athletes to train in. Ours is very much a squad-based environment for our local Melbourne athletes. With a lot of face to face coaching (up to 9 a week), our athletes know they will have the support of their coach (yes the direct coach who wrote their program) at every session and will be motivated by other squad mates putting in the hard yards right alongside them day in day out.

When I first started coaching I noted a long time ago that the best athletes in the World trained in a squad environment. Harking back to the programs of Col Stewart in the 80’s and 90’s with athletes such as Chris McCormack and Miles Stewart, and to the current day with Joel Filliol and his JFT squad program producing World ITU Champions like Mario Mola and Jake Birtwhistle.

So whilst its very labor intensive for our coaches with the high amount of squad sessions run each week with less athletes per coach to ensure quality of service, this ensures the best training environment that gets the best possible outcomes for our athletes.

We are excited about the gains and new learnings we have developed over the last year and cant wait to get stuck in the local season and 2019.

For more information on our Triathlon squad program get in touch with us at sean@fluidmovements.com or call 0421 020 805 and we will happy to chat about what our program can do for you.

Coach Foz