Posted: September 8, 2003

Triathlon: Natasha Filliol's End Of Summer Update

Well, it’s not quite the end of summer, but it sure feels like fall has rolled in to Victoria, so I wanted to give you an update on my fall training and racing plans.

My Pan American Games report is now posted. It’s been a long time coming, I know, I tried to take a bit of a holiday afterwards, and since it wasn’t one of my best performances I put it off…

After I returned from the Dominican I was really glad to get home to Victoria again – ahhh fresh air (coming from Santo Domingo)! Soon enough I was on a plane again, this time to my sister’s wedding in Toronto. It was great to see my whole family again and of course see my big sister get married to former Olympian (marathon ’96) and all around great guy Peter Fonseca. I’m going to have to get used to calling her Mrs. Fonseca! You can check out a photo of us here: www.competitionzone.com/race-reports/end-of-summer-03.htm

My next big race isn’t until the end of October, but it’s a big one. The Athens World Cup and Olympic Test Event is on October 25 and is a Canadian Olympic Team Qualifier. It’s also on the official Olympic race course so it’s a great opportunity to see the course and should be an interesting race for those picking favorites for the Games. The Canadian qualifying is basically this: a top 8 and first Canadian is will be selected for the team, but even if the top Canadian isn’t in the top 8, they still might end up being selected after the criteria rolls down from the next selection race in Madeira Portugal in 2004.

It feels great to actually be doing some training, as with all the racing I’ve done this summer, I haven’t been able to put together a training block of longer than 3 weeks since May! In preparation for the tough Athens bike course I’m doing a lot more riding, which is great as I’ve got a new bike this year. I’m riding bikes from a Spanish company Orbea, which are just awesome! Very light and responsive – and I think it helps to ride the same bike as the guy that won the Alp D’Huez stage of the Tour de France this year!

My schedule for the fall consists of the Madeira World Cup the week before Athens as a tune up race, then after Athens I’m off to Cancun, and possibly Rio if all goes well (I know I know… it all sounds very glamorous, but I assure you it’s a lot of hard work!! J). Finally at the beginning of December, the World Championships are being held in Queenstown New Zealand. I visited Queenstown in ’98 on holidays (probably the last time I had a real “holiday”) and it’s an awesome place so I’m looking forward to a great race there.

Overall I’m really happy with my season so far. Highlights include:
My three best World Cup finishes to date (5th, 5th and 7th)
Meeting my COC minimum Olympic Qualifying Standard
Representing Canada in my second Games Team – The Pan American Games
Consistently fast run splits – including a 35:06, and a couple other sub 36 mins runs off the bike.

And:

Improving my ITU World Ranking to 10th!! (actually it’s 11th, but the 10th place women, former world champion Siri Lindley has retired, so I’m calling it 10th!) I never thought I’d get ranked ahead of Michillie Jones (even if just temporarily) Since I’m not racing for a while it’ll probably go down again, but with a couple more solid race I think I can finish the year in the top 20 which has been a goal of mine. Next year it’s to finish the year in the top ten, so I’m on my way!

Natasha Filliol
2003 Pan American Games Team Member
2002 Commonwealth Games Team Member
Canadian Elite Triathlon Team Member
Supported by Subaru, New Balance, Orbea Bicycles, PowerBar, GPush, Rudy Project, Aquaman, Marco Travel Paris, Millard, Rouse and Rosebrugh Accounting Brantford, Carnac, First Endurance, and Competition Zone.