Greig Leach

I can't remember ever seeing Tahiti or any of the other South Pacific island nations at the Worlds before, but then Australia is certainly a lot closer than Europe on the Americas. So it was a treat to see Tekau Hapairai, Kylie Crawford, and Elodi Touffet (Tahiti) out on course after the male members of their team had finished their lap of the Mixed Team Relay. This is only the third year of this event which replaced the team time trials of years past. It makes more sense to have teams compete under their national flag then as their trade teams as it was in years past. With no disrespect to the teams efforts, they were not quite the well oiled machine of some of the big name European teams, but the joy they felt to be competing at the worlds was unmistakable.