Event Information:

• Jaimee Leader – World Elite Triathlon & Aquathlon Champs 2014

  In August I travelled to the World Triathlon & Aquathlon Championships in Edmonton, Canada.  It was an honour to again represent NZ at a World Championships event and return home with the 2014 World Junior Aquathlon Title.

  It was a great experience to be competing at this World level in the Elite 19&U races, against athletes several years older than myself. My racing schedule consisted of 3 races over 6 days which was always going to be a big workload but with two more years in this age group my focus was to gain as much race experience as I could.

  One of my main goals was to perform well in the Aquathlon which was my first race (750m swim/5km run). It was a very hot humid day and I stood on the start line ready to give it all I had. There was such great support over there from many NZ athletes and supporters on the sidelines and this really helped me over the last few kilometres of the run, it was an amazing feeling to cross the finish line and take out the World Junior Aquathlon title over some of the predicted podium athletes from Brazil. The experience of standing on top of the podium receiving my gold medal and listening to the NZ National Anthem is one i will remember forever. Two days later and i followed this win up with another solid race in the Elite 19&U Triathlon where i placed 9th in my 17years age group and 29^th overall.  My last race of the World Champs was a Triathlon super sprint team event, where I was called up into a U23 NZ team who placed 12th in a fast paced race against some of the World best U23 triathletes. It was a hugely rewarding experience to travel with the team to Canada and be racing at this Elite World level, representing NZ and PNGHS and bringing home a Junior World Champs title.