Säter, Sweden ITU Long Distance World Triathlon Championships 1999
Here above is the best team manager ever, the wonderful Ian Pettit. here he had come to support my charity 75 mini tri in 75 days that ended on my 75th birthday. He came along to that in 2014 and did the bike ride with me and had bubbly stuff waiting at the finish line.
This LD Worlds in Sweden holds a lot of memories and even though I ended up with an AG championship title, not all of the memories are good. One thing we had to be thankful for was that team GBR once more had Ian Pettitt as team manager and he managed in the end to make us all get our heads on straight and remember what we were there to do and to stop moaning about the appalling conditions that we had to endure during our stay at what we were lead to believe was a sports village.
Actually it was an old mental health institution of the old world kind. An Asylum. The more harmless groups were sent for holiday home visits but there was a secure block there also.
Team GBR were in the same building as the team from Australia who seemed to think it was a lot funnier than we did. We were on the floor above them. Great clanging iron, lock up barred gates and old, cold marble floors. The result was that we did not want our doors closed on us, and on our level we left doors open onto the austere corridor apart from when changing.
It was a terrible shame because that is what we remember instead of the pretty lakes and woods thereabouts and a well run event.
Women age group 55-59 With Mary Ann Wallace and Peggy McDowell Cramer who were place 2nd and 3rd and with whom I am still friends.
Säter, Sweden
ITU Long Distance World Championships
It was somewhere that we had never been
And so instant interest for a fresh new scene
Sweden beckons with Scandinavian cuisine,
adventure in pastures new, fresh and clean
We loved to go somewhere we’ve never seen.
Fitness found and in sport we have remained
for triathlon for many a years we have trained.
Combining sport and holiday unrestrained
a new race within most vacations it is explained,
somewhere unique we would be entertained.
The World Championships would be here
yet Säter, in Sweden proved somewhat queer
‘Accommodation in a sport village’ so less clear.
Of weird locations some mistake it would appear
in little more than cells where once lived fear.
Yet the site was one our heart would detest
on the GB team pm arrival late not impressed.
A place where the distraught once lived this test.
Charging us to stay there an idea far from best
Largest asylum in Sweden for our sport fes.t
Clanging corridors in an institution is what
they gave us, cold floor and curtains forgot
cold water sink and the beds were simple cots.
Luxury for visiting teams and comfort, not a lot
team manager said to forget what this was not.
This wise mans advice; focus on the job in hand
think only of sport whilst in this foreign land.
Be determined to do well that would be grand
forget anger and rise to do what we had planned,
show strength and in sport we would proudly stand.
1999 Age Group Female 55-59 1st
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