Yesterday morning, in Ibiza, the day after her success and that of her companion, Clément Mignon, Marjolaine Pierré still could not grasp the scope of her feat, relayed by the national press. 24 hours earlier, however, she seems golden, after more than five hours of effort (5h53’35) and nearly 150 km swallowed up in a triple effort longer than usual, during the ITU world championships of long distance triathlon. “I don’t quite realizeconfides Marjolaine, under the Spanish sun. Even if it shed some light on our event and this non-Olympic distance. It’s the first time I’ve run such a long event. I used to race half-ironman. There, it was the intermediate stage before going up to the full. I tried to take it as a normal race and manage the effort, one after the other.” However, the Salinoise did not hide that this national selection was one of the key objectives of the season. “Since January, I had in mind this objective for the month of May. My dream was to have the title. I wanted to race in March. But I took into account what happened there. last year. So I only did a preparation race, in Cannes, two weeks ago (victoire). I’m happy to confirm that!”
The reward for in-depth work carried out, in training, in Reunion during the austral summer. “I had very good training with ASEC this winter, explains Pierre, a professional triathlete. I managed to be supervised by Antoine (LeGoff). And I passed a course in swimming thanks to them. I come out of the water 3rd and at the transition I’m already 2nd. After 3 km of cycling, I am all alone. I took the lead quickly. It was not easy to be at the forefront. I’m the usual hunter and unhunted.” But this season is very different for the former business school student in Nice.
A good preparation for the Reunion
Relieved of injuries, which have handicapped her for the past two seasons, Marjolaine has also found the solution to her ills. “I had four stress fractures in seven months, loose the bubbly blonde licensed to Le Club Triathlon Réunion. Triathlon is an energetic sport, where you have to eat a lot. And gain weight. However, I have always been careful not to take too much… I had osteoporosis, and bones are breaking. You need fat. That’s what I understood. There, I regained 6 kg. In the end, I’m better. I am more homogeneous in the three sports. It allows me to be less frustrated.” And stronger on the cycling portion, where she continued to take time on the 8th in the world, the Swede, Sara Svensk. To conclude the 30 km on foot with a smile. “Last year, in terms of training, it was a blank year, continues Marjo. There was no consistency. I lined up on races to accompany Clément. But it was really hard. At the world championships, I finished 6th, while I put the bike down in 2nd position. Inside of me, I knew that I was not going to last… It feels good to find consistency.” Energy. Good omens for the half iron-man world championships at the end of August, in Finland. “That’s the other big goal of the season. In the meantime, I’m going to race on the PTO circuit to gain places in the world rankings.” With this success, Pierre is now 18th. An ambition, which does not allow him, for once, to take part in the Games of the Islands of the Indian Ocean. “It was a bit of a dilemma, concludes the AC Saint-Paul athlete. Especially since I was in line for long distances. In Madagascar, I would have run the half-marathon. It turns out that it was three days before the competition in Finland. But traveling wears out the body. It frustrates me, because I would have liked to be there.”
A second world gold medal would surely erase that feeling. In the meantime, she entered the history of the discipline on the national level by becoming the 2nd Frenchwoman, only, to glean this world title, after Isabelle Mouthon (1994, 2000).
Jonathan Timbou