A local athlete has added another world title to her tally, after a brilliant season.
Guernsey’s Andrea Nightingale won the Age Group Aquabike Standard Distance World Championship in Pontevedra, Spain last weekend, bringing the number of major championships she’s won this year to four.
Swimming 1.5km and cycling another 40km, the distance was shorter than Nightingale is used to, presenting a different challenge.
She said: “I knew I had my work cut out. Swimming isn’t my strongest discipline, so I was anticipating that I would have it all to do on the bike, particularly on the hills.”
To make it even harder, her goggles got knocked off at the start of the swim.
“By the time I’d retrieved them, the other women had gone, so it was a real struggle to get myself back into the race.
“When I reached transition, there were already a fair few bikes gone, so I knew I was in for a fight.”
Competing against 24 others in her age group, Ms Nightingale’s biggest rivals were the Americans and Swiss.
“I managed to pick everyone else off fairly quickly, but it took until the second 10km hill to catch USA. Then, with about 3km to go on the final downhill, I flew past the Swiss athlete. I just kept going and didn’t stop until I got to the line!”
Having secured a European championship in May and just coming off the back of two world titles in Japan, Nightingale is looking to carry her momentum into the final race.
In November, she will take on the World Aquabike Championships in Abu Dhabi, where she will race a 3km run and 120km ride.
“I’m so determined to finish the year on a high and complete the goal I set out to do at the beginning of the year. Just one more race to go, so fingers crossed!” she said.
