WURF THE PRESSURE
CAMERON Wurf is relatively inexperienced compared to his more fancied rivals heading into tomorrow’s Hawaiian Ironman triathlon world championships but believes his opponents aren’t exactly sure how to handle him.
Last year on his professional debut the former cyclist and Olympic rower set a new record for the 180km bike leg — and in the process blew several of the leading contenders’ chances.
Twelve months on, the Tasmanian is quietly confident he can be a genuine threat for this year’s crown, having broken through the mental barrier of running a subthree-hour marathon as part of his gruelling preparation.
Wurf has competed in six Ironman-distance events this year — many top athletes only feature in one or two — but it has all been part of a carefully designed schedule to teach his body to perform at sub-optimal levels.
And the fact he has managed to lower his marathon time from Kona last year from 3:19 under three hours in the process has him placed exactly where he wants to be.
“Last year I was far from one of the top athletes in the sport, if you looked at the results and what I had done,” Wurf told the Mercury. “But come Kona, all of a sudden I was at the forefront. The things I was very weak on was the run and the swim, I have been able to focus heavily on them this year and improve both those quite a lot.
“That also has meant I have improved on the bike, people forget I had a couple of years where I didn’t really do much as far as an elite athlete goes.
“Last year I was able to sucker everyone into racing my race, whether that was a respect thing in that they felt “’his guy can ride this quick so we all can too’ and obviously everyone paid for it.
“The only person who didn’t race my race of the frontrunners was [Patrick] Lange and he won. The other guys, [Sebastian] Kienle, [Jan] Frodeno and [Lionel] Sanders, who are all up there, they massively underperformed compared to what they have done in the past.
“This year I hope they try and race my race, that would be great and it could work in my advantage. It is the perfect opportunity because I don’t think they quite know how to handle me and I know that’s certainly going to play on everyone’s mind during the race.” Having only sealed his position to race in Kona less than two months out on his first attempt, Wurf’s final finishing position of 17th was more than commendable. But having spent all of 2018 training and racing with one goal in mind, he firmly believes he can put himself into a position to become the first Australian male to win gold in Hawaii since Peter Jacobs in 2012. “Instead of just focusing on trying to be there, really for the first time I can remember in my sporting life, I have had an opportunity to actually focus on a long-term goal and preparation to have a real crack at winning something special. “The year has been completely different, I have done a lot of racing still but that has all been for training.
“The consistency is the biggest thing and learning how to race well.
“In reality, I could swim 3.8km at intensity and ride my bike 180km at that intensity pretty much every day of the week.
“But the marathon is the biggest thing but as we have also learned as I’ve improved my running, it is actually at a certain speed you do some damage.”
Wurf also knows the confidence gained of breaking a three-hour marathon could be the biggest key to unlocking his dreams.
“It is a massive barrier, until you have broken three hours you haven’t done it, you can talk about being capable of doing it until the cows come home.
“The biggest reality check on that for me was the fact with all the training I’ve done, I can run a lot faster than that.
“Running at that pace is now well within my grasp.
“My entire sporting life I have [been great at wasting energy], [coach Tim] Kerrison is a bit of a genius making me race extremely tired, but also with the expectation I am still going to be competitive, which is what I put on myself.
“It has made me use my bullets wisely, and I think I am a much smarter racer and I wouldn’t have learned that otherwise.”