Jenae-Marie Price, a talented 16-year-old triathlete hailing from St Anns, Port of Spain, Trinidad, is making waves in the world of youth sports. In an exclusive interview with Express YSS, Jenae-Marie shared her journey as a national triathlete and her aspirations for the future.
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00:00 Hi, my name is Janay Marie Price. I'm 16 years old.
00:03 I go to Providence Girls Catholic School and I'm a national triathlete for Trinidad and Tobago.
00:08 My days usually look like morning, getting up early around 4.30 to 5.
00:29 And training up until 6.30, 6.45. I then go to school for most of the day and then afterwards
00:37 I have either my evening session or some lessons and then my evening session
00:43 which goes around another hour and a half. Well my week consists about six to seven
00:48 days of training. Every day is at least one session, sometimes two, about three to four times
00:56 a week. I would have a swim session on the morning and then on the evening I'll either have a
01:02 run or gym and then some mornings are riding and then running in the evening.
01:08 I think my one of my favorite races that I just competed in was the Barbados Developmental Cup.
01:14 It was my first sprint triathlon and I was a little nervous on how I was going to do given
01:20 that it was my first sprint distance and in the end I was really pleased with how well I handled
01:25 the distance and did well. Triathlon is a sport with three disciplines. So firstly the swim,
01:32 the ride and the run. I've recently just moved up into 16 to 19 age group but previously I was in
01:38 13 to 15 and that distance is called a super sprint which is a 375 swim, a 10k bike and then a
01:46 2.5k run. And now that I'm in 16 to 19 my distance has doubled so I do a 750 swim, a 20k bike and a
01:54 5k run. Well anytime I have a chance to be home it's usually to go straight to bed straight from
02:01 training or sit down and read with my mom or hang out with my mom. I live with my mom, she also
02:07 partakes in triathlon. She does more longer distances so she'll do Ironman races which is
02:15 racing anywhere to seven hours and then I have two younger brothers. Neither of them do triathlon,
02:22 they play football. I'm mainly the only triathlete in my family apart from my mom.
02:27 My mom was a part of a triathlon club when I was younger so I've basically always been around the
02:32 sport and then coming into when I was around seven, eight, TGCF had started having the school
02:39 series for triathlon which is when I first started partaking in triathlon races and my first event
02:46 was the school's aquathlon. Yes I've always been doing some sort of sport. Before triathlon I had
02:52 done mainly swimming and gymnastics and then even though I was around the sport I hadn't been doing
02:57 it to the extent that I am now and eventually I started building into the sport more. I have a
03:02 few people that I look up to when it comes to sports. In Trinidad, I mean she's not in my age
03:07 group but Jenna Ross, she's definitely been one of my, I've always looked up to all through triathlon.
03:15 I train with her every now and again and I think I'm very lucky to be able to train with someone
03:20 that I look up to and really give me that motivation when it comes to training. In triathlon,
03:24 Hinchin and I don't have many athletes around my age that I'm more head-to-head with. I do have my
03:29 teammates and but they're all older than me so when it comes to racing I'm more looking for people
03:35 away. Some of my old friends that I had raced with back in Barbados Developmental Cup, the Arubans,
03:43 Rebecca Jansson, she's in my age group, amazing triathlete, I really look up to her and she's
03:48 trained like no other athlete I've seen. Definitely someone I look up to when it comes to training.
03:53 Well currently I'm hoping to do some more Carifta under Trinidad and Tobago and race them,
04:00 represent the country. My next event is Commonwealth Youth Games, I'm really excited to
04:06 race in such an intense environment given I'm going to have a lot of competition and when it
04:13 comes to triathlon I definitely want to race at a college level and train with more people away.
04:18 Yes definitely that year coming out of COVID 2021 and 2022 we hadn't been training as much,
04:24 we'd been doing most of our stuff online and some trainings here and there that we could get outside
04:29 so it was definitely difficult coming out of quarantine and getting back into that rhythm
04:35 with training. Motivation I didn't have a lot so it took some difficulties to get back there,
04:40 definitely my mom was the one who helped me the most to overcome all that and kept me pushing,
04:44 I don't think I would have still done the sport if it wasn't for her to keep pushing me. So I'm
04:50 hoping to make the Carifta team this year and race for Trinidad and Tobago again. I think triathlon
04:55 has helped me so much throughout and I don't think I would be as disciplined and as healthy as I am
05:01 with doing a sport and I think it's really important at my age to have a sport and a discipline while
05:08 going through school and everything it really helps me keep focused and motivated. Thank you
05:13 everyone for viewing my Express YSS interview, good luck to all the other athletes that will
05:18 competing in the Commonwealth Youth Games and I hope everyone comes down and supports all the
05:22 athletes that will be taking part. Bye!
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