Vegan athlete takes career best at the World Championships

Vegan athlete Lisa Gawthorne has taken an incredible bronze at the World Championships with a fantastic performance.

She was competing in the Sprint Duathlon race. This starts with a 5km run followed by a 20 km cycle. After that there’s a 2.5 km run, although road closures charged the first stage to a 5.7 km run.

To add to the difficulty the weather was hot and still. 86 degree heat and no wind made for unhelpful heat levels.

“I trained harder than ever for this race as I didn’t pick up any injuries that set me back” Lisa told Great Vegan Athletes. “This allowed me to really pack in the training on the run up to the competition.”

“I made sure I kept a little energy back to ensure a strong final run and a sprint finish which took me from 4th to 3rd position with less than 1km to go. I ended up recording the fastest run legs in my age group for both runs too which I was really pleased with.”

Fuel!

The British athlete is managing director of Bravura foods, which supply vegan confectionary such as liquorice. However, the training and racing were supported by whole foods. This included “lots of whole foods – whole grains, rice, quinoa and tofu and green vegetables and salads.

“I maximized protein after training sessions and loaded up on carbohydrates prior to the harder sessions to get the most out of them.

“Romania isn’t an overly vegan friendly country so me and my boyfriend Tony (also vegan) took a lot of our own food to enable us to mix it up and have the choice.”

Lisa has numerous successes at European and World level, although this is her highest placing. Well done Lisa!

Lisa’s profile

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