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What it’s like to be a pro triathlete

5 January 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00)
What it’s like to be a pro triathlete

By Amina Nazarli

Enter into the life of a triathlete: wake up before sunrise to swim, bike or run. Life is hectic and busy and essentially revolves around the constant desire to train and improve swimming, biking and running.

Triathlon is a multiple-stage competition involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance disciplines, with the most popular form involving swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances.

AzerNews had the pleasure to speak with one of national triathletes, Boris Najafov recently, and he told us a bit about what life was like for him as a triathlete and IRONMAN 70.3 Middle East Championship, where he represented Azerbaijan.

This triathlon event gathering one of the best triathlons in its distance was held in Bahrain. The national athlete failed to enter the top three, but he did not get upset, since victory was not his main goal.

The most important in this event is to overpower the distance, meeting the planned timeframe for each of the segments, Boris believes.

“Last spring, when I started doing triathlon, I did not expect to participate in Ironman 70.3 with its nearly two-kilometer swimming stage - one hundred and fifty meters without stopping was very tedious task. However, gradually increasing the distance and improving technique, I realized that I began to enjoy long swims and was less tired,” he said. “The same about running and biking. The most difficult was to start. I began to train more and more, I started to run ten kilometers and later, began to run regularly.”

The national athlete plans to conquer the Bosphorus Cross Continental Swim Race to be held in Istanbul this July.

“A long preparation work is ahead, since the race is very difficult with waves, challenging flows, and quite a long distance up to 6.5 km,” he said.

Despite the difficulties, Boris, believes that the race, involving more than 2,000 athletes will be enjoyable and memorable. Moreover, he will not be the only athlete to represent the country in the competition, that’s why he hopes that the Azerbaijani flag can reach the finish.

Interestingly, Boris is sure that the raw physical potential is not enough to become outstanding professional elite-level triathlete. The challenge is to turn this potential into performance.

He believes that for the success one just need proper training, eating and resting.

The athlete admitted that he often hears opinion and advice from friends and relatives, who say that such long "grueling" load is harmful to the body.

“However, those who claim that it is big burden for the body “can hardly answer the question of what they consider normal load, and where, in their view, begins "too much",” he said.

Azerbaijan is going to hold triathlon championship next May, and Najafov hopes that triathlon will be developed in the country soon.

“Today, we do not have all the conditions for developing this sport in the country,” he said, adding that “one should not expect motivation from outside - it is better to become a motivation for others.”

After all those sensations when crossing the finish line are not bought for anything in the world buy, but positive energy helps to move forward, he said.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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