Henry McMecking’s first taste of European triathlon has left him buzzing for his debut U23 World Championship campaign in Spain next week.
The 20-year-old Cantabrian finished an impressive 15th at Europe Triathlon Cup Ceuta – an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast – on Sunday, beating home Kiwi teammate James Corbett in 20th.
McMecking and Corbett, who had travelled all the way from his impressive Continental Cup breakthrough in Tokyo the previous weekend, have now made their way to Torremolinos on the southeast coast of Spain for the world championships.
There they’ll line up alongside Paris Olympian Dylan McCullough in a three-pronged Kiwi attack on October 17 (Spain time).
McMecking started the year with 23rd and 26th places at Oceania Cup Wanaka and World Cup Napier (pictured) respectively before finishing 6th in the U23 division at the Oceania Sprint Championships in Devonport and 17th in the Oceania Super Sprint on the Gold Coast.
He then split two big blocks of training at home with an eye-catching 4th at Asia Cup Yilan in Taiwan on September 4.
“The main focus of my year has been on U23 world champs in Torremolinos. I took a break off training following the Oceania season and since then I’ve just had a big training block at home all winter where I was really consistent,” McMecking told SBR-Tri.com.
“I made a trip to Taiwan to get in a standard distance race and to get an idea of form. I went home after that for another few weeks of good training and then arrived in Europe on Monday night. The main purpose of the Ceuta Cup was to get a race under my belt in Europe before the ‘A’ race in Torremolinos.”
Ceuta didn’t start to plan but McMecking was pleased with his bike, run, the latter a 15:13 5km split that was the 12th best of the day.
“I was a bit disappointed with my swim as I’ve put in a lot of work in the water. I came out just at the back of the main chase pack, so I had to ride pretty hard for the first lap to not let the main group get away.
“James [Corbett] was up the road with maybe 10 other guys but unfortunately our group was huge so everyone seemed more concerned about positioning into technical sections than working together. The second chase group ended up catching us on the last lap as well. My legs felt great though which is promising for U23 worlds, and gained good experience from riding in a group of 50+ guys all wanting to get to the front.
“My legs also felt great on what was a tight and technical run which I’ve taken a lot of confidence from for Torremolinos. I was able to have one of the quicker runs from the large chase pack and get through some of the group up the road, which put me in 15th.”
Now McMecking will put the finishing touches on his prep for the worlds around the famous beach region of Andalusia.
“Overall I’m very happy with this result considering I arrived here not long ago and it’s my first taste of European racing,” McMecking said.
“If I can have a swim I know I’m capable of in Torremolinos, I believe I’ll be in a promising position to be competitive and come away with a result I can be happy with.”
