From 5th till 7th August 2016, the ISF World Schools Triathlon Champion Catalina Salazar (CHI) participated in the FISU World University Championship.
The race took place in Colovray, Nyon with a 3 laps of 500m swim in Lake Geneva, 4 laps of 5km bike going crossing 3 neighbourhoods and 4 laps of 2.5km run going around the Colovray sport center.
The experience was incredible, however the “university level is very different then the school level, because in the World Schools Championship I competed in a 16-18 years old category, here all the athletes compete together, no matter their age, so the level was much higher” stated Catalina who was the youngest competitor aged of 18 years old when she arrived and celebrated her 19th birthday on 6th August.
“the swim was very difficult; the current was creating strong waves for a lake, then the bike course was not easy due was steep slope, but the race was exhaustive as it was only the second time I was competing under the Olympic distances” admitted Catalina, who started with 32 best time and completed the triathlon at the 44. position with a time of 2:21:32. Catalina is a little bit disappointed with her timing, however proud to have competed among older and more experienced triathletes.
There was a total of 59 female athletes with an average 21 years old. The full raking can be found here.
The next race of Catalina is in September in Cozumel (MEX) for the ITU World Triathlon Series – Elite Women, where she will meet once more some of the women she met here, including Vanessa de la Torre (MEX) who finished second.
Picture: Athlete (ARG) – Vanessa de la Torre (MEX) – Athlete (ARG) – David (Volunteer) – Francisco Salazar, Coach of Catalina (CHI) – Catalina Salazar (CHI) – Athlete (ARG)