MacPhee wins gold despite cracked ribs

Kerry MacPhee powered home to an easy victory in the women’s triathlon for the Western Isles, Lynsey Henderson from Shetland won the silver, but Bermuda’s Laurie Orchard won the bronze medal. 

MacPhee’s victory was all the more remarkable as she cracked a rib five weeks ago in a mountain bike accident.

MacPhee said her swim was terrible but there’s a good explanation for that.

“I have cracked ribs so I haven’t been doing a lot of swimming. It was just horrible. I had a mountain bike accident a couple of ribs so I’ve been doing very little swimming. I got through it and that was the aim of the swim.

When I got on the bike… I just kept my head down and eventually caught the leader. I went for it and then it was just to try to hold on in this f---ing heat.”

Orchard had to pass Greenland’s Gail King and stave off Jersey’s Jennifer O’Brien for the final spot on the podium.

Orchard said: “I really, really wanted to medal and get Bermuda on the board and we’re on it. I’ll take third place.

Orchard said: “My feeling was good going into the swim, but I was all over the place and it was really hard to see that first turnaround so my swim was slower than I hoped.

“I had a strong bike so I put my head down to see what I could do. I felt pretty strong so I settled and picked it up.”

Orhard was caught by O’Brien and drafted behind her on the run.

“I felt really comfortable and then I decided I had to take it into my own hands and run my own race. I decided to push over that hill because I know that hill – it was home turf advantage, but I felt really good.”

Henderson said winning a silver for Shetland was “unbelievable. I’ve never run so hard in my life. This is just amazing.”

Henderson said the conditions on the swim and bike wasn’t too bad, but “it’s the running when the heat gets you. You’ve already gone hard on the other two sections so you’re already tired. It was really torturous.”