Hats off to Stella Barber

Hats off to Stella Barber

Docklander Stella Barber was very pleased to complete the course at the World Triathlon Championships in the Netherlands on September 17.

“Right now I am very tired,” she emailed soon after completing the course in Rotterdam.

The Victoria Harbour resident was the only Victorian in her 55-59 age group and she thinks she was the only Docklander to represent Australia in the event.

Locals may have seen Stella training for the event between her place at Concavo and NewQuay. She moved to Docklands about 18 months ago and loved it so much, she bought an apartment this year.

“I love my life here. I work from home as a professional historian and am also doing my PhD, so it’s great living next door to the best library in Victoria,” she said.

Ms Barber wasn’t well in the lead-up to the event and things got even worse as she “acclimatised” to Dutch conditions.

“I arrived and caught a cold swimming in the Maas River during practise, so have been doing everything to get better including swallowing whole garlic cloves!” she reported. “This meant any Transylvanian athletes gave me a wide berth!”

“It’s been raining, cold and windy in Rotterdam for the entire five days I have been here but today the rain held off.”

“It was touch and go if I would start or not, but I wasn’t coming all this way for nothing.”

“The water was sooooo cold. I had cramps in my calves the whole way, but made it.”

“When I went to get my bike, it was gone,” she wrote. “Someone got the wrong bike and mine had been moved to another rack. So I was searching for it with a volunteer and that took nine minutes.”

“But I did well on the hired bike – slow, because of all the turns, but no panics!”

“The run was a struggle because of the knee injury, but I made it and I wasn’t last and, in fact, did much better than I had hoped and was the second fastest Australian in my age group, yippee!”

“It was definitely the toughest tri I have done since the ironman and the hardest course, but the Dutch are fabulous people, so supportive, with lots of ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’ from the side lines.”

“It’s such a joy and privilege to represent your country,” Stella said.

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