Hi everyone 🙂

Mitch here! In this blog I am going to take you through what I have been doing the last few months.

Finally, after a long winter without competitions, the time had come to compete again. On the 9th of May I opened the season with the EK qualification, unfortunately this did not go as I hoped and I had to retire during the run. I did not have much time to sorrow, I had to reset and go on again. Three days after the qualification race I flew back to Italy for the European Cup in Caorle. This competition consisted of a semi-final on Saturday and a final on Sunday. On Saturday I easily qualified for the final on Sunday. The final started very well for me, I came out of the water first! Unfortunately it came together on the biketrack and it became a running race. I finished in 7th! Very happy with this result after a winter of hard training.

With this result I had qualified for the European Junior Championships in Kitzbühel (Austria)! A fantastic experience for me! I had a good race and finished 17th of Europe! The week after the EK I travelled on to Wels (Austria) for a Europe cup. A steady race, 23rd place. Not bad but also not good. 

Once I got home I had two weeks of hard training, my first Olympic distance was waiting for me. I raced the Dutch Championships elite (adults). 1500m swim – 40km bike – 10km run. I finished in 8th place, which I was also very satisfied with. After this there was a longer period without races, a lot of training and a week of holiday was planned. The first race after this period of training was a team race in Almere. We managed to win here, a fantastic team performance. 

August 22th was the date of the Dutch Junior Championships. I had circled this day in red in my diary. This had to be my moment and it was! I became Dutch Champion! I had a super race. This was really cool, I really wanted this and I did it. There was not much time to celebrate though, because the Friday after the NK, I had to start again in the Belgian competition. I got a 3rd place in the adult race, and I was very satisfied with my results.

The focus now went to September 5th.. On this date I would start a European Cup in Bled (Slovenia). The form was very good, the preparation (unfortunately) a bit less. I got a bit sick the week before. Luckily I was fit in time to start. The swim went great, I came out of the water in front. Together with two Hungarians, I started cycling at full speed and after that came the run. In the end it was a sprint finish and I won! This was really unbelievable!!! I was beside myself with joy. This was my reward after hard work. 

Because of these good performances in the second part of the season I have qualified for the World Junior Championships in Portugal on November 6th. Now I have to train really hard and make sure I can show my best there. Thankyou for reading this blog!