The AR World Championships - Costa Rica
“If we'd had a good day we could have beat them,� said Haglöfs Silva
Carlos Morales / 06.12.2013
Haglöfs Silva is out of the race since yesterday’s night. They retired after Josefina’s bike crash when they where going up the “Cuesta del Burro” hill (biking section after Transition 4).
Emil Dalhqvist talked with us in San Gerardo de Dota (Transition 5) about the race sections they run and the crash that took them out of the race.
For Dalhqvist, the World Championship was a great race, even when they had some problems and mistakes across the course.
“I think we did a good race and we were happy with the result… we did some mistakes but, it was hard to navigate; and the teams around us, we didn’t see Thule, but Seagate and all the other teams, they did the same mistakes, so it’s the same for all, the course was nice, so yeah, we really liked it” said Emil.
He enjoyed the mangroves section (after Transition 3) in Sierpe, but they had a hard time because of the tides and the small streams all over the mangrove.
“In the 3 first check points we had really problems. We didn’t find them, we thought we were seeing the right place, but then, yeah, there were small streams and it was really hard. Then the last check point was easy to take.
There were low tides at one point, so we had to go around and had to paddle one or two hours extra, but it’s the same for all, you never know…” he said.
When they were biking yesterday, Josefina Vikberg fell from her bike and got her elbow injured. They tried to control the pain and continue the race but it was impossible.
“It was on the bike, it was up hill, so it was not a big crash, she fell from her bike and the elbow dislocated. We continued up to the zip line and up there she took some painkillers and tried to rest like 20 minutes and then we tried to bike and she couldn’t reach the handle bar on the bike… so it’s hard; and to walk all the way up there it would take some time. So then we called the rescue team and they had some other painkillers and then we slept one hour more, it didn’t work so we decided to not complete the race,” said Dalhqvist.
Now they are on the transition 5, trying to decide if they would follow the race or go back to their country. Emil is convinced that it would have been a great race for them.
“We have been in 3rd place three years in a row, we know Thule and Seagate are really good, so yeah, if we had a good day we can beat them, but, we would have been happy with a podium,” he assured us.
SleepMonsters
