Commonwealth Games: Teenage tri-athlete Aisha sets national record

Aisha Nasser's journey to making it to the Kenyan team doing duty in Birmingham for the Club Games has not been an easy one. 

The eighteen year old was, however, determined to put that behind her and repay her hard work with good performance in what was her first major championship, as a tri-athlete,representing Kenya. 

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The Nairobi International School student had set her sights on improving her personal best as she faced off with some of the best athletes in the world. 

"I am excited and scared at the same time but I know I am going to make myself and Kenya proud. My target is to cut my time as much as possible and post a Personal Best. 

I have set the mark of 1:13 down from 1:21 which is my current Personal Best and I feel that it is achievable. I have been working on my transitions and running because that is where I have been losing on time," she said ahead of the competition held on 29 July. 

Nasser kept to her promise and obliterated her PB to set a new national record of 1 hour 13 minutes and 26 seconds to finish in 30th place. 

On the 750m swimming course, the 18-year-old clocked 12 minutes and 41 seconds, spending one minute, 24 seconds in transition to the cycling course. 

She tackled the 20km bike course in 36 minutes and 24 seconds before doing her 5km run in 22 minutes and 13 seconds, having spent 44 seconds in transition. 

To realise her dream, Nasser had to endure a tough qualification process as Kenya Triathlon Federation was forced to hold the trials thrice with Aisha competing in all three before she could get the ticket. 

In the initial qualifiers held at the Karen Waterfront, Aisha finished second behind Meghan Irungu. 

An appeal lodged by the fourth-placed competitor in that race Josette Njere challenging the results on grounds that the winner had skipped a loop in one of the events led to another qualifiers at Kenyatta University. 

Aisha won the second qualifier. However, NOC-K ordered another repeat sighting technical challenges with the courses used at Kenyatta University. 

The swim course was held at a swimming pool rather than an open water course and there were concerns with the bike course, especially on the laps that the competition took, as well. 

A third competition headed to the coast where Aisha won to book her ticket to the games in a time of 01:21:54, followed closely by Vivian Hillier from Mombasa with a personal best time of 01:23.06. Irungu completed the podium list by finishing third in a time of 01:32:06.

Aisha who was a competitive swimmer before making the transition to triathlon says her father Nasser Ahmed who is involved in Ironman triathlon races is a big inspiration in her career. 

"I have done an Ironman's event in Dubai where I finished in eighth place in the 18-21 years category. Despite being a longer version of the sprint distance event that I will be competing in, the experience gained in that competition will go a long way in helping me give better results in Birmingham," offered the aspiring lawyer who also has ambitions of becoming a pilot ahead of her travel to Birmingham.