As some of you may have known, fellow St Neots CC members Tom Stead, Ian Turner, Chris Ritchie and I qualified at Nottingham National Water Sports Centre earlier in the year for the ITU World Championship Final to be held in Hyde Park, London on September 12th - 15th so I thought I'd let you know how things went.

I think it's fair to say that this was a huge race for us and not an opportunity that will come round again for a long time - especially not for me! We used the same facilities as the pros and pretty much the same course, as was also used in the 2012 Olympics.

56 countries were represented at the race and this was very evident by the opening ceremony that we attended at Trafalgar Square on the Wednesday night, where there were athletes and flags from all over the world.

Anyway to the race - after a very nervous night's sleep, not aided by someone coming into the hotel drunk at 3 in the morning, Ben and I made our way down to the GB tent to get ready. After "good lucks" from Judith and family I went for a last warm-up run and then put on my wetsuit and made my way down to the holding pens with the other guys in my age group - about 130 to 140 in total going in 2 waves.

We were then led out onto the pontoon across the Serpentine, and with no warm-up allowed, it was straight into the water for a holding start on the pontoon. This was it - no going back, 11 weeks of training against 140 guys all with the same idea! Away we went at the sound of the air horn and all nerves vanished as the water erupted around me. The swim was fast and the quality high as I had expected and I saw a large group pulling away from me that I was unable to match: "don't PANIC - ha ha"!

I set a good even pace and swam a fairly uneventful swim ending with a 750mtr time of around 13.40 which was a bit disappointing if I'm honest. Anyway out of the swim and a long run down to what was a huge transition, straight to the bike and away we went onto a 20km very wet and very slippery 3 lap course around Hyde Park. As is usually the way, I started to make up a lot of places on the bike trying to push hard but being wary of all the crashes going on around me.

The laps soon passed with the biggest crowd I've ever raced in front of and soon it was time to come into transition again with a bike split of around 34 mins. Finding your bike in these huge transitions is bad enough, but trying to find your empty rack number and a pair of blue addidas trianers is even harder, but find them I did.

I set out on the 5km run with huge support. I felt good and set an even fast pace from the start probably helped by the fact that I'd had to take it easier on the bike than normal. At around 3km an American passed me and as he started to pull a bit of a gap I just thought to myself "I'm not having that!" and fought back to his shoulder and then passed him again. To his credit he replied with "great running buddy" and tucked in behind me.

I ramped up the effort but could not shake him and as we came round to the finishing chute that I'd dreamed about for weeks and worked so hard to cross he gunned it big time as we hit the blue mat. I replied and we ran shoulder to shoulder, England v USA for what felt like the overall title. But to his credit he pipped me and finished in 27th place with me in 28th place overall.

I finished with a 5km run PB of 18.16 and was very pleased and relieved to have completed and competed in the biggest race of my life, the whole race and day was a fantastic experience and one I will always remember regardless of the result. Though, hey, 28th in the world in my 45-49 year age bracket ain't bad for an old boy from St Neots.

Many thanks to my wife Judith and Ben and Amy, Raymond Brennan at Good To Go sports massage, and to all at St Neots CC for the TTs - and all at Nicetri as well , thank you.

Richard Hancock

The other three St Neots CC club members who competed at the World's also fared well in their age groups:

Tom Stead finished 12th (read about his experience on his blog here)
Ian Turner finished 31st
Chris Ritchie finished 45th.

Congratulations to all of them.