Kiwis in the Gong
In October I went to Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, to race sprint distance at the World Triathlon Championships.
There were several thousand athletes from around the world competing across all age groups, para and elite categories across several days. For age groupers there was racing across standard distance for triathlon and aquabike, sprint distance, and mixed team relays. The mixed team relays are a relatively new addition for age group racing and with a 300m swim, 7km bike and 1.5k run they were fast, furious and a lot of fun!
The T100 and pro races were on at the weekend after the age group racing, so there was plenty of to watch and soak up the awesome atmosphere after racing. We all raced well and finished in the top half of our age groups. We did a joint race report on the Fremantle Triathlon Club website too.
I had great races in both the sprint and mixed team relay off a solid base built up from long distance offroad adventures running the Larapinta and riding the Gravel Muster in Alice Springs earlier in the year in August. A couple weeks off then a six week short sharp block to sharpen up did the trick and I was on great form for race week.
The month before I left ended up being super busy with an unexpected opportunity that I couldn’t turn down, but with good planning I pulled everything off - I wrote more about that in a recent LinkedIn article.
A couple of friends from Fremantle Triathlon Club were racing too and my friend Kinga is in the same age group as me. In the race we did our usual side-by-side through the swim, I had my usual lightening fast transition and was about 1km up the road on the bike thinking ‘Kinga is due about now’ when she sailed past. I attempted to hang on but she was on fire! A good T2 and out onto the run, 3 laps of a hilly course. There was great support all around the course and it gave me the extra boost to finish strong and fend off a chasing Canadian on the blue carpet.
For the mixed team relay the Kiwis got to pick our own teams so I raced with my former race rival from Tauranga, Angie Wall and a couple Grants from Tauranga and New Plymouth. I was first as Ange said I’d be more aggressive in the swim than her! She was probably right there, I don’t mind a mosh pit swim - 10 years of swimming in the chop of Wellington harbour when I lived in NZ is excellent training for rough swims!
I had the most fantastic time all week hanging out with a mix of the Freo peeps and my Kiwi triathlon tribes from Wellington and Tauranga where I have lived previously. It was like a fusion of all my favourite people from two countries!
The Kiwi team have a super special manager in the form of Mel who is like camp mum for the team, uniting us through our NZ team WhatsApp group and keeping us posted with everything we needed to know. She’s the one in the Kiwi suit in the photo below which featured in a few of the event photos and on the TV news.
This was my 5th World champs since 2012. Previously I’ve raced in Sprint at Auckland 2012, Duathlon in Adelaide 2015, Cross Triathlons in the Snowy Mountains 2016 and Townsville 2024. Each event is super special and a unique experience.
The next time worlds will be in Australasia is in 2028 when it goes to my old Kiwi home town of Tauranga. Keen to see how many Freomantle tri clubbies we can qualify and send a team over!!
