US Immigration destroys Clearwater dream

… and with the stroke of a pen my dreams were shattered!

After hundreds of hours spent training. Countless of which were in the dark and cold. Thousands of rands spent on applications and entries (not to mention equipment) and an unquantifiable cost to those closest to me, it came down to this.

One immigration official and a list of questions that were so loaded, I had no chance of answering them in any other way. The end result, a red letter telling me that my visa application had been denied because ‘I was unable to demonstrate that my intended activities in the U.S. would be consistent with the visa status’.

As a friend in the USA put it, “so they are saying when you get here and utterly exhaust yourself, you will look for illegal work as a gardener or dishwasher?”

So it is with a heavy heart that I now have to face up to the fact that my Clearwater and Kona dreams are gone. I have to look for other challenges and races that will fuel the fire within.

Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise since I can now relax and enjoy the sport for what it is and not constantly seek out that elusive qualification slot. The list of alternate destinations is virtually endless and the more exotic locations like Brazil, China and Japan are suddenly appealing. This is, of course, not to say that I will suddenly accept a mediocre result I believe the ultimate show of defiance will be to win my age group in an event and thereby raise attention to the injustice I believe I have suffered.

Oh, I will be back. Stronger and more resilient than before. So the next time you line up next to me in a race, you had better be prepared because I will not just be there to make up the numbers.