You know what just rips? A little hike.
And it’s all the better if you’ve got a few buddies with you.
Jemima Montag had two teammates alongside her in the race walk final in Glasgow, but once they hit the track, they certainly weren’t mates.
The two-time gold medallist broke clear early in the 25-lap race around Scotstoun Stadium with fellow Australian Lizzy McMillen leading the way.
It looked like the pair might link up with some drafting techniques to avoid one racer getting buffeted by the Glasgow winds that have caused havoc on the track and field at these Games.
Instead, the younger racer in her Commonwealth Games debut sat out front with Montag nipping at her heels for the better part of 23 laps before Montag made her move.
Montag sat behind McMillen for almost the entire race. (Getty Images: Michael Steele)
“It was pretty windy out there so having to cop the wind for a good 23 laps was a bit tough, certainly not my plan, but I’m proud of my efforts and I went as hard as I possibly could,” McMillen said.
“What can you do? That’s racing for you.”
Men’s gold medallist Isaac Beacroft was in a similar spot a day earlier and said silver medallist Stephen Kihu was regularly trying to encourage him to take a turn setting the pace.
He didn’t have any intention to do so, executing his race perfectly with a late kick to explode past the Kenyan and claim gold.
McMillen said she was similarly keen to have Montag take some of the load out front, but to no avail.
“I did look back a few times thinking ‘Are you gonna kinda help out here?’, but no,” she said.
“I was the rabbit today, so what are you going to do?”
Montag said she had the utmost respect for silver medallist McMillen and bronze medallist Bec Henderson, but there were no friends out on the track.
“Not in a race. In training, absolutely, but in a race you have to be selfish. Unfortunately it’s an individual sport, not a team,” she said.
“If it was cycling or something with drafting, where you do change the lead around, then absolutely.
“But as much as I would love to, sometimes you have to forget it’s a teammate that you care about and just remember it’s another competitor and it’s another body that’s in front of you and to ultimately be selfish.”
Henderson said the plan going in was to complete the 1-2-3, but how that played out was always up in the air as all three executed their own race plans.
“All three of us have really different strengths in terms of racing and really different tactics in terms of how we like to do the race,” she said.
“So I think it was best for us to all take our own tactics going into the race and hope that that worked out for us on the day.”
By
