Tough struggle for medals; the Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa diary

[Translation: Crispen T.P. de Lange]

It was a very tough struggle for the medals at the European Championships today. After two days of suffering with diarrhea, I was lacking a lot of power in my legs and I could feel it right from the start of the race. So on a difficult day, this was a very uplifting result.

I didn't have a totally optimal period of preparation for this major championship, but still I managed to fight my way to a great silver medal. We've been eating very good food here in Italy, as usual, for the last two weeks. But a small aperitif on Thursday evening knocked my digestive system out of balance. Kenneth, Ralf (the Merida mechanic) and I have been suffering with a lot of stomach pains, tiredness and multiple visits to the bathroom these past days and it's doubtlessly drained us of some of our energy.

I quickly recovered after the European Championship Marathon race last weekend and have had great legs and a good feeling the whole week. Our exercise stint on Thursday out on the track, during which we usually bomb around the track at high intensity and then rest, went as planned and proved to me that my top gear was in place as we had hoped. I would never have managed to take the silver medal if I hadn't been in top shape.