Terri-Lynn Penney of Grahamstown was among the world’s top triathletes in Budapest, Hungary, for the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Grand Final. The world triathlon, which covers a distance of 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run, took place on Sunday, with over 3 000 participants from across the world.
Terri-Lynn Penney of Grahamstown was among the world’s top triathletes in Budapest, Hungary, for the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Grand Final. The world triathlon, which covers a distance of 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run, took place on Sunday, with over 3 000 participants from across the world.
Penney, who is the comanager of Run/Walk For Life Grahamstown, was part of a 60 plus member South African team which saw SA’s top triathletes competing in the various age categories.
Penney took part in the women’s 30 to 34 age category with 64 women from across the world. Months before the world champs, Penney’s dream of taking part was almost shattered when she fractured her ankle while on a training run.
But her determination kept her hopes up and she was able to compete with the best in the world in Budapest.
She finished the Olympic distance triathlon in 2 hours 27 minutes 45 seconds, almost 13 minutes quicker than her time at the South African champs, which qualified her for the finals.
Penney said that although the start of the race the water was freezing and it took a while to get going in the 14 degrees chill, she got into her stroke and had a good swim, with a time of 29:15.
Her cycle went even better with a time of 1:05:52 and then finished with a 44:57 run. Although her run was slower than her SA champs 10km time, Penney was pleased as she had only had eight weeks to prepare for the run after her ankle fracture.
Penney said the experience was amazing and thanked all the individuals, organisations and businesses who helped her financially to be able to take part in the world champs.
While she will be working on getting her running back on track, Penney says she is keen to concentrate on the triathlons for a while.
