Isla Walker breaks Sidney tt u17 course record

[Lister Farrar]

Isla broke her clubmates record last night. Isla did 26:10, beating the old record of 26:30 by 20 seconds, over 17.4 km. 39.9 kph average speed.

Records are made to be broken, but Isla’s success is remarkable for who held the record. Sarah van Dam is probably the most prolific medallist at national championships, and selected for Junior world championships this August.

Isla has had a remarkable season, especially considering she had a concussion from a sailing incident for most of the fall. At Cameron law tt, she beat 2019 u19 junior worlds team member Annabella Stoll-Dansereau by 15 seconds. Then on Sunday at the Leg finished 4th in her first cat 1-3 elite women’s race. In early July she won all 5 superweek youth races she contested, then started the elite women’s tour de white rock to train for future races, but finishing with u19 stars Sarah Van Dam and Elle Bush.

Best of all, Isla has remained modest and drew no attention to her results. She actually broke Sarah’s record the first time two weeks ago with a 26:24, but didn’t tell anyone. We only noticed last night when someone asked about the course record in another category.

Next up for Isla is a taper week, then off to tour de L’Avenir in Quebec, the biggest u17 and u19 girls stage race in North America. She will be joined by fellow ts youth team member Alen Fazlagic, who is only 19 seconds off Riley Pickerel’s Sidney course record, and 14 s off Adam de Vos’s training times on the observatory when they were both there last week for a youth practice.

[Fozzy]

Thanks for posting this Lister.
I can attest to Isla's performances this year as she has regularly kicked my ass at various VCL races and won the overall womens B category.
Well done Isla!!

Good luck to both Isla and Alan at the tour de L’Avenir!!

[mfarnham]

Great work Isla!

Martin

[AJ Neale]

Congratulations Isla, both for your achievements, and the example you are setting for the younger ( and older ) riders! Andrew N.