When you’re looking for adventure, the Vitara Hybrid is ready to help you escape. With rugged good looks, you’ll go the distance with enviable fuel efficiency, turbo performance, and off-road versatility. All at a criminally low price. It’s NZ’s most wanted SUV.
WHAT IF EVERY RUN WAS A PODIUM-WORTHY PERFORMANCE? AND FROM YOUR TRAINING READINESS, YOU KNEW YOU WERE PRIMED TO REAP THE REWARDS? WITH OUR BRIGHTEST FORERUNNERS EVER, STATS AND INSIGHTS WILL BE LIT UP ON A COLORFUL AMOLED DISPLAY. AND SOON, YOU TOO, WILL BE STANDING IN THE LIGHT.
GO TO CULTURE
12 Warm Up
GO TO SPOTLIGHT
14 Hamburg Humdinger
16 Quite the Splash
18 Feel the Roth
20 A Swell Cause
GO TO INSIDER
24 Tri NZ Awards Reinstated
26 Sam Parry’s Hammering Away
28 They Said It...
29 Super League Season V Preview
30 A World of Age Group Opportunity
32 John Hellemans: You’re just Tired?
34 Heather Neill: Sobering Life Lesson
36 News from Wanaka to Paris
38 Kurt Peterson’s Twilight Zone
41 Is this tri’s Olympic Future?
42 Andrea Hansen: The Great Inspirer
GO TO GEAR+TECH
66 Pressio’s Impressive Compression
68 TheMagic5 Vision
70 Shokz’s Deep Beats
71 Sumarpo Wetsuits Giveaway
72 Go Gravel this Winter
How do you know you’ve made it? For Garth Barfoot, the affirmation was immediate. “When I did my first triathlon and got my name in the paper, it was like the first sip of a drug, an addiction which lasted 30 years.”
KENT GRAY
@triathlonnz
@triathlonnz
kent@triathlon.kiwi
SIMON COCHRANE
When the new Ultraman record holder isn’t racing ridiculous distances, he’s coaching them. (p110)
HEATHER NEILL
The Napier vet got lucky during Cyclone Gabrielle but her experience was still chilling. (p34)
BILLY BOWMAN
One of tri’s true characters gives a first person account of his record breaking Kiwiman win (p92)
KIM ABBOTT
Fuelling your training rides just got tasty thanks to Tri NZ’s Nutrition guru (p114)
It took Hamish Carter two full Olympic campaigns, the first of which he now concedes he got horribly wrong by trying to control everything in the leadup to Sydney 2000. If you were on the periphery of his camp, well, good luck.
“I was a self-centred ...,” Carter revealed during an fascinating talk to the finalists gathered for the Tri NZ Suzuki Series prize draw in June. “It’s the way I thought I had to be.”
A favourite to win, Carter bombed and finished 26th. His personal resurrection and journey to gold in Athens four years later was an inspirational listen full of takeaways. The key, other than focusing on becoming a more affable person, centred on controlling the only thing he could.
“You need to bring exceptional performance into training every day so that it’s likely, when you race, you’ll race either on that level or just below it. The exceptional becomes normal,” Carter said.
“So that was a change. In fact, everything was the other way around, that’s how far away I was in Sydney.”
For Kurt Peterson, coincidently one of the Suzuki Series finalists who savoured Carter’s speech, the Paralympics in Paris are the dream, LA ’28 too. But making it will be different for the colourful character from Albany, measured not just by race results but by how many in the disabled community eventually follow in his determined footsteps.
The step-up to WTCS level will be the sign for Hannah Knighton. The Cambridge 23-year-old has bigger goals like the ’26 Commonwealth Games and LA ’28 Olympics, perhaps even some longer distance racing. When she gets there, the physical and emotional scars that mark her past will undoubtedly mean she’s ready to make it.
Overcoming adversity is one of the unintended themes in TQ2. A common thread fully intended are the inspirational journeys shared, Barfoot, Peterson and Knighton’s life
stories included. There’s also Ange Keen, a freshly minted World Cross Triathlon champion who gives the work-tri life balance new meaning given her vocation. A doff of our cap to Constable Keen and all the other “front line” triathletes out there working to keep our troubled communities safe, no cinch when combined with the huge commitment of swim, bike and run and especially when it’s done just for fun.
Sam Parry is a young man doing a nice job of making it at the elite level – in his own unique own way. The 20-year-old’s European campaign, crammed into a short window before he was due back on the building sites of Palmerston North, is a cracking tale. It further underscores the fact that there is no ‘one size fits all’ secret to progress at the pointy end of triathlon, as much as some would have you believe.
That’s the thing with human progress – we quite enjoy making our own decisions, which often leads to mistakes along the way. It’s also what makes making it, whatever level we compete at or the goals we set, so addictive. For the record, Barfoot isn’t done with his great live vice yet, November’s New York Marathon his next target.
When you’re 87 and counting and still wanting more, you know you’ve made it by choosing a life lived fit and to the full. We wish our legendary Patron an awesome trip to the Big Apple and hope he gets his name in “small print” once more.
Check carefully and you may well find your name at the back of TQ2. If you’re not featured in the results, you’ll most definitely find plenty of inspiration elsewhere – including tips on how to winter well.
Here’s to thriving through the colder months and hitting the ground running – and swimming and biking stronger too – this summer.
Kent Gray Managing Editor
TRIATHLON NEW ZEALAND/GRAY MATTER MEDIA
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EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING
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Billy Bowman, Simon Cochrane, John Hellemans, Heather Neill, Kim Abbott, George Wardell, Blake Weston, Connor Webb, Hamish Collie, Sean Beale, Scott Taylor, Ben Lumley, Matt Berg, Courtney Akrigg/ World Triathlon, Ironman Oceania Group, Super League Triathlon, Professional Triathletes Organisation, Challenge Family
Spring, 2023
TQ New Zealand is available for licensing and syndication. For more information, please email: kent@triathlon.kiwi.
TQ is published quarterly by Triathlon New Zealand in association with Gray Matter Media.
Cover Image: Scott Taylor/ScottieT.com
The Fine Print
TQ New Zealand is published by Triathlon New Zealand in association with Gray Matter Media. Reproduction in whole or in part of any photograph, text or illustration without the express written consent of the publisher is prohibited. Due care is taken to ensure TQ Insider is fully accurate but the publisher and Triathlon New Zealand cannot accept liability for errors or omissions. TQ and Triathlon New Zealand logos are copyrighted. All other content in this magazine, plus associated content shared on the TQ.kiwi and Triathlon.kiwi websites, is jointly owned by Triathlon New Zealand and Gray Matter Media, or used under license from third parties. All Rights Reserved.
TQ is in Spain to discover how NZ’s finest prep for World Triathlon’s biggest races
Ainsley Thorpe takes to the small screen to share run drills to speed up your summer
KONA KIWIS
It’s the Ironman World Championships but not as we know it with Kona women only in 2023
Out late September. Stay tuned for TQ.kiwi
TAG YOUR PICTURES
#TQGram
@ameliarosewatkinson
Halfway through alpine camp, so much awe for this place [Sankt Moritz], form is trending
@bradencurrie
The best race atmosphere I’ve ever raced in and it’s good to get older and faster #ironmancairns #stoked
@anna_zwift_racer
Gravel, where have you been all my life ❤
@samparrynz
Legutio Tri takes first place for the hardest race I’ve ever done…took a little lie down on the finish line just to catch my breath.
@lucy._evans
Olympic Esport week 2023 ✌Grateful for the opportunity to race in Singapore and stoked for team Oceania to win!
@sophie.spencer
5th at Wels Junior European Cup! �� really happy with how the form is looking for junior worlds in T - 2 weeks [Hamburg July 13]!
@brearoderick
First time on the big girl blue carpet [34th at WTCS Montreal] and it did not disappoint! Looking forward to building from this ��
@hayden_wilde
We be grinding. @canyon flys and sparkles at the top of the Mountain ranges [Andorra La Vella, Andorra]
@jacktmoody
Threw myself well into the deep end with the world’s worst/most fun off season at @volcanicepic.
A quick spin around the swim, bike,
The trademark smile on Luke Scott’s dial hides plenty of heart - and head - aches since the Palmy North 21-yearold crashed out of the Oceania Standard Distance Champs in Port Douglas on May 27. We’re pleased to hear Scott is on the comeback from a broken knuckle and concussion.
FALCON AIRWAVES
Athlete led podcasts are all the rage nowadays (the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club - Watts Occurring is a goodie) and now the Kiwi No.1 has joined the fun. Lend The Hayden Wilde Triathlon Show with Matt Hauser your ears here.
Outgoing Challenge Wanaka Race Director Bill Roxburgh (centre) won the John Fitzharris Memorial Trophy for services to sport at the Central Otago Sports Awards, recognising a lifetime of service. Check out TQ Insider for news of Roxburgh’s replacement.
St Patrick’s College, Wellington student Connor Kemp won the Tony O’Hagan Fair Play Award at the NZSS Champs near Wanaka in March. A TO said: “I found him extremely polite and encouraging of students as they ran past us. He was keen to learn more, and he accepted a couple of pieces of advice I offered.” Shot Connor!
KING’S HONOUR
Shanelle Barrett’s lifetime in tri, first as an HP athlete and now as a Race Director of events such as the Tri Taranaki Festival/World Cup New Plymouth, was acknowledged when she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours. #TriProud
Kudos to the media team at PTO who saw fit to change Daniela Ryf’s profile picture after the Swiss athlete’s record smashing win at DATEV Challenge Roth in late June. 8:08:21 for the full distance is indeed GOAT-Esque.
$120k
The prize purse for the Olympic Test Event in Paris from Aug. 16-20, including US$30k each for the men’s and women’s races. Oh la la!
7:24:40
Magnus Ditlev’s surreal DATEV Challenge Roth winning time, a new world best set up by the Dane’s course record 3:57:45 split for the 180km bike leg.
13th
of August, the start of the new Tri NZ Suzuki Series with Auckland City Tri Club hosting the national Age Group, Para and Schools Sprint Duathlon Championships at Ambury Park.
OI, OI, OI
Matt Hauser’s maiden WTCS win in Montreal marks him as one of the world’s most promising short course athletes and how about the depth building beneath the Aussie No.1. Expect to see a lot more of Bradley Course who won the Oceania Standard Distance Championship in Port Douglas. Aged 19. Jeepers.
4
New Zealand’s Olympic triathlon medal tally. It’s comprised of one gold (Hamish Carter, Athens ‘04 ), a silver (Bevan Docherty, Athens) and two bronze medals (Docherty, Beijing ’08 and Hayden Wilde (Tokyo 2020 ).
8:08:21
Daniela Ryf (SUI) slashed nearly 10 minutes off Chrissy Wellington’s 2011 world best mark on a record shattering day in Roth.
Close racing, rowdy crowds lining the streets and stunning city vistas at every turn. WTCS Hamburg again delivered it all, this time at the elevated World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championships in mid-July. Few other WTCS stops can match Germany’s home of triathlon when it comes to the full package of crowd engagement and happy athletes, both elite and the 2500 age groupers who raced when the elites weren’t putting themselves through the ringer. It impressed IOC President Thomas Bach who jetted in see if the Super Sprint eliminator format might be worthy of adding to the Olympic Games program one day. “…I was also here to check out the new format, which I think has taken off very well. From what you see and hear from the athletes, they are taking to it well. It certainly needs further development but here, especially with the great Hamburg crowd, it was a really great debut.”
Alex Yee, the 3rd placed Brit, concurred: “It’s crazy this racing. I really enjoy it but it’s carnage. It’s a good format, I think it’s here to stay.”
Team NZL loved it too, of course, and why not with gold for Hayden Wilde in the men’s individual, silver for the elite relay team and bronze for the U23 quartet. Wúnderbar!
World Triathlon
It has been an impressive start to 2023 for Dylan McCullough, the 22-year-old Cambridgebased Aucklander who signalled his undoubted talent with 7th place at last year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Captured here en route to a bronze medal in the U23 race at the Oceania Standard Distance Championships in Port Douglas in late May, McCullough had previously snared U23 gold at the continental sprint championship in Tasmania and narrowly missed the podium at World Cup New Plymouth. Since then, he’s finished 26th at WTCS Yokohama in his maiden standard distance start at World Triathlon’s top level, before bettering his WTCS best with 14th place in Montreal. The World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championships in Hamburg didn’t go exactly to plan with McCullough eliminated before the top-30 shootout but a bronze medal with Brea Roderick, Saxon Morgan and Hannah Knighton in the U23 relay was ample consolation.
In scenes more reminiscent of a ITT at the Tour de France, riders are roared along at DATEV Challenge Roth. The iron distance race in is a bucket lister for triathletes the world over and 21 Kiwis were among those to soak up the famous Bavarian atmosphere in late June. Roth’s iconic finishing chute amphitheatre once again delivered the rowdiest welcome in all of triathlon, long into the night. Long before the lights even went on, Magnus Ditlev (DNK) and Daniela Ryf (SUI) had obliterated not only the Roth records but recorded the fastest ever times for the iron distance. Ditlev’s 7:24:40 slashed 11 minutes of Jan Frodeno’s previous Roth mark while Ryf’s 8:08:21 took 10 minutes off Chrissie Wellington’s effort 12 years earlier. For context, adopted Kiwi Dr Dan Plews, one of the fittest 40-year-olds on Earth, won his age group in a time nearly 10 minutes slower than Ryf.
Lars Palmer/challenge-family.com
Look closely and that tiny speck you spy amid the swells is former world triathlon champion Rick Wells, freestyling his way from Whangamata Wharf to the local Surf Club in a gnarly end to day seven of the Due Drop Challenge in April.
Wells, All Blacks legend Ian Jones, former Kiwis captain Richie Barnett and Gumboot Friday lynchpin Mike King were among the hardy souls who swam, cycled and ran the length of the North Island in relay to raise funds for youth mental health, this day having started in Clevedon. Together they raised $600,000 and started critical conversations in each of the communities they navigated
during the epic odyssey. The 16-day relay started at Cape Regina and finished at the Beehive but the race to save the most vulnerable young New Zealanders is far from won. What to do? Maybe a South Island relay next year. If it happens you can count on Wells and co. bravely fronting, no matter the conditions.
ScottieT.com
Sam Parry
The chippy hammering out results
GO TO PAGE 26
Heather Neill
When tri pales into insignificance
GO TO PAGE 34
Kurt Peterson A hard knock life to Paris Paralympian?
Have the Sharks lost their bite for SLT 5?
GO TO PAGE 29
GO TO PAGE 37
A cautionary tale from Dr. John Hellemans
GO TO PAGE 32
Andrea Hansen draws the curtain on her glittering triathlon career
GO TO PAGE 42
“I become irritable and depressed. Being a medical practitioner is not helpful. Doctors are notorious for ignoring their own symptoms.”
Triathlon’s brightest stars and selfless servants are to be recognised once more with Tri NZ set to reinstate the sport’s hibernated annual awards.
The governing body will inaugurate a ‘Tri NZ Hall of Fame’ as the showpiece of the initiative designed to shine a light on supreme athletic achievement and outstanding community contributions.
Winners will be celebrated at a gala dinner to be held in conjunction with next summer’s soon-to-be-released Oceania series, taking advantage of the small elite racing window before New Zealand’s top short course athletes take flight for their annual European campaigns including, for the fortunate few, the Paris Olympic Games.
The year’s top Elite, U23, Junior and Age Group performers will be honoured while a new category to recognise NZ’s finest long-distance pros competing at Ironman, Challenge Family and PTO level will be launched. There will also be awards celebrating the sports’ critical community contributors including Technical Official, Volunteer, Club, Coach and
Tri NZ CEO Pete De Wet believes the time is right to not only restore but elevate the Tri NZ Awards which have experienced an unsettled existence, from memorable ceremonies in Wellington in the 2000s, to acknowledgement in annual reports as recently as 2017 and more recently radio silence.
It comes with triathlon on a roll in New Zealand and around the globe as the Paris Olympics loom. Kiwis continue to perform at WTCS, World Cup and Conti Cup and Championship level around the globe, while the introduction of the PTO means there has never been a sharper focus on the iron-distances. Domestically, the Weet-Bix Tryathlon is regaining momentum post-pandemic while another action-packed Tri NZ Suzuki Series, offering weekend warriors at all ages and stages of development opportunities to race for fun, PB’s or World Triathlon Age Group selection, is set to go again in mid-August.
“Our sport is building genuine momentum so I’m really
The best-of-the-best across every facet of the triathlon eco-system are to be recognised again.
excited about reintroducing the Tri NZ Awards to add further impetus,” said De Wet.
“There are so many inspiring performances that happen all the way through our sport, from community to age group through to our elite athletes. The awards will be an opportunity for us to recognise these achievements, and celebrate them as a sport.”
De Wet is also excited to announce the formation of the sport’s first New Zealand Hall of Fame.
“The inspiring Kiwis who have contributed to the rich and storied history of our relatively young sport deserve to have their contributions recognised for perpetuity. We’ll start small and grow with the Hall of Fame but it is important to start. This will be the place where their legend will endure,” De Wet said.
Category and award specifics will be announced soon, along with eligibility and judging criteria. A panel including independent representation will be convened as part of the judging process.
Unlucky 13? Not for 14-year-old Kaipara College student Mila Laarakkers who won the Tri NZ Suzuki Series prize draw in Auckland in late June.
Watch the video for the dramatic moment Laarakkers beat the odds and enjoy our report at Triathlon.kiwi. Want to win next summer’s Suzuki Swift? All you have to do is enter one or more of the Tri NZ Suzuki Series events listed on p?? (hyperlink TO BE ADDED), stick around for the prize giving afterwards and you could be in the draw. Congrats again Mila and, on behalf of the tri community, a huge shoutout to Suzuki NZ for their continued support of our awesome sport. It just wouldn’t be the same without you Suzuki!
All the Kiwis in the official World Triathlon Ranking as at July 17, 2023.
Hayden Wilde
Tayler Reid
Dylan McCullough
Janus Staufenberg
Trent Thorpe
Saxon Morgan
Kyle Smith
Lachlan Haycock
Austin Carter
Henry McMecking
Sam Parry
James Corbett
Ivan Abele
Oliver Larcombe
Luke Scott
Benjamin Airey
Alex Brackenbury
Finnley Oliver
Coen Anderson
Joshua Gordon-Glassford
Gus Marfell
William Taylor
Nicole Van Der Kaay
Ainsley Thorpe
Brea Roderick
Olivia Thornbury
Eva Goodisson
Hannah Knighton
Olivia Cummings
Hannah Howell
Sarah McClure
Sophie Spencer
Madison Keightley
Andrea Hansen
Anna Lindsay
Angharad Llewellyn
Natasha Bowyer
Hannah Prosser
Amara Rae
Lucy Evans
Kiri Atkin
Isabelle Bannister
Deborah Fuller Charlotte Brown
Fresh out of the Junior ranks, Sam Parry’s pathway to triathlon’s big time is a little unconventional in a New Zealand context.
Where others in the Tri NZ High Performance set-up are chasing Continental and even World Cup starts, Parry and coach Jamie Turner have identified other levels of offshore racing to accelerate his learning.
It’s part early development philosophy, part pragmatism, the latter due to the fixed window the 20-year-old had before the boss needed him back on the building sites of Palmerston North.
While others are embedded in the Tri NZ camp in Banyoles, Parry based himself in the Basque Country city of VitoriaGasteiz with tri pals Christian Davey and Reeve Dooney and navigated races across Spain, France and Poland, often on his own. If nothing else, he’s learned resilience and that events beyond the mainstream spotlight can get gnarly.
With 10 starts in 12 weeks, the race, race and race some more strategy is also designed to make up for lost time due to the pandemic. It’s already paid dividends with victories in the Getaria Triathlon and Triatlón Olímpico de Legutio, plus a silver medal at the Donostiako “Triatloia” in San Sebastián, just his second standard distance start after placing 34th at World Cup New Plymouth in March.
The impressive World Cup bow has been followed by a 19th place on debut at elite European Cup level in Rzeszów, Poland –and a travel nightmare trying to get back to Spain. Resilience. Tick.
Perhaps the greatest learning so far though has come from racing a second season on the uber-competitive French Grand Prix circuit, this time for Mach3 Triathlon.
While Hayden Wilde was nabbing global headlines with his victory in the second leg of Grand Prix de Triathlon in Bordeaux
during an unscheduled guest appearance for Triathlon Club de Liévin in mid-June, Parry was back in the arm and legs wrestle learning his craft. The hard way.
“It’s honestly the hardest racing I’ve ever done, the swim is a literal washing machine,” Parry told TQ after the a race in Metz.
“If you don’t find ‘clean’ or ‘clear’ water fast, then it’s going to be a long day in the water. To give some context, I got caught in the washing machine and found myself trying to navigate around a 90 degree buoy turn along with 120 other athletes. It was quite scary as I got fully submerged under the water by other athletes and couldn’t
Trainee chippy Sam Parry is making great strides hammering out a second apprenticeship – in international triathlon.
“It’s the perfect time to rack up experience that is going to vital for when the time matters...”
find any space to resurface again.
“When I did finally surface, I had to take a couple seconds to gather myself and start swimming again. Luckily I made it onto the back of the front pack still but it wasn’t smooth sailing after that.
“Onto the bike and you’re constantly dropping watt bombs just to stay in touch with the pack. Throw in a couple of big crashes and it’s just carnage. Onto the run and my legs were already shot, so just made it a mission to make it to the finish line. 37th on the day, a tough day at the office. But it was a big improvement on my 60th from last year. 120 on the start line. Huge.”
When Parry and Turner sit down to debrief this campaign, the results won’t be as important as those crystalising moments, challenges to be mentally filed for bigger races inevitably on the horizon.
A brilliant 6th at Oceania Cup Wānaka in February, when he kept pace on the run with the likes of Tayler Reid, Dylan McCullough, Kyle Smith, Brad Course and the Aussie teen prodigy’s countryman and eventual winner Callum McClusky, showed Parry has all tools.
“My Europe schedule is pretty full on but if you really look at it through the years of Covid, we only got to race a handful of times over two years which has left us with an extreme lack of race experience.
“So as my first year out of the junior ranks, it’s the perfect time to rack up some experience that is going to be vital for when the time matters and I’m 21, 22 and I need to start performing.
“So for now, I’m racing for experience rather than performance.”
On this OE, he got both. Tick, tick.
Performance (TAPS Level 1)
Nicole van der Kaay
Dylan McCullough
Tayler Reid
Ainsley Thorpe
Hayden Wilde
Development (TAPS Level 2)
Eva Goodisson
Saxon Morgan
Brea Roderick
Janus Staufenberg
Olivia Thornbury
Trent Thorpe
National Tracking Squad (TAPS Level 3
Austin Carter
James Corbett
Olivia Cummings
Lachlan Haycock
Hannah Howell
Hannah Knighton
Henry McMecking
Samuel Parry
Sophie Spencer
National Tracking Squad (TAPS Level 3
Ivan Abele
Benjamin Airey
Coen Anderson
Alex Brackenbury
Charlotte Brown
Lucy Evans
Lulu Johnson
Luke Kuggeleijn
Oliver Larcombe
Cameron Maunder
Gus Marfell
Finnley Oliver
Olivia Rooney
Grayson Westgate
*TAPS = Tailored Athlete Pathway Support
In a world first, athletes from across Oceania will have the chance to represent their triathlon club virtually
by tackling Ironman Oceania courses on FulGaz this winter. The FulGaz Oceania Club Challenge, utilising the FulGaz indoor cycling app, will take place from July 15 July to August 13, with registrations open now. By riding one of the nine Ironman
“Not out of this world. Totally just the best in the world” –British star Kat Matthews retorts the PTO’s Ditlev post
“He’s the guy that gets me up in the morning. I want to wake up and be better every day and beat this guy. When I get into a battle with someone, obviously 100 percent I want to win.” – Hayden Wilde on Alex Yee
“Lactate acid up to my eyeballs...” – Tayler Reid after qualifying for the top-30 at the World Sprint & Relay Champs in Hamburg en route to a seasonbest 11th
Oceania bike courses, including Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Port Macquarie, Western Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong, Busselton, Tasmania and Taupo, athletes will be in with a chance to win their share of over $10,000 worth of prizes for themselves and their tri clubs.
Athletes earn points for their TriClub for every bike course they complete. The more members racing, the more points the club receives. Registration is free and newcomers to FulGaz can claim an 30-day free trial.
FulGaz is the official indoor training platform of Ironman. With more than 100 official Ironman and 70.3 bike courses available within the app, FulGaz provides year-round training enjoyment.
FulGaz Oceania Club Challenge
“Out of this world.” – The PTO sums up Magnus Ditlev’s winning DATEV Challenge Roth time
“Frustrated that I’m so far from where I want to be. Most of all I just had an allconsuming feeling of sadness.”
– Gustav Iden following his mother’s death
“I’m extremely grateful for the support from my friends, family, sponsors, competitors and fans. Would honestly not be bothered to be racing now if it wasn’t for all of you”
– Iden again after finishing 32nd at WTCS Montreal
“Was feeling pretty subhuman there for a hot minute or two, between multiple time zone changes and the crash! But the body & mind are starting to play ball with me again ” – Nicole van der Kaay was ready to park her crash at WTCS Montreal. She did with 6th and relay silver at WTCS Hamburg
SUPER
A Falcon with less bite but more sting? That seems likely as Super League Triathlon gets set for its season five return in London.
Can’t get enough of the Hayden WildeAlex Yee show? Never fear, Super League season 5 is nearly here. The usual Kiwi suspects are back for the world’s “fastest triathlon” – Wilde, Nicole van der Kaay and Tayler Reid – and the dates and venues locked in. Strap yourselves in for rapid-fire action complete with short chutes, more mouth-watering Wilde v Yee mano-o-manos and perhaps lashings of Aussie battler Matt Hauser too. But that, through a Kiwi lens at least, is where the similarities with SLT 4 end.
The Kiwi trio were all part of the Sharks franchise last season but that seems certain to change in STL 5 given Wilde signed on for Bahrain Victorious 13 triathlon team in the New Year. It means the Whakatane/Maltese Falcon’s defence of the men’s title in England, France, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia will likely be in the colours of the Bahrain Victorious Scorpions, though the makeup of teams for 2023 hasn’t yet been announced.
The Scorpions snatched the teams’ title by two points from the Sharks last season. They were managed by SLT co-founder Chris McCormack and included eventual women’s champion Georgia Taylor-Brown. If Brown stays put and Wilde joins as expected, the Scorpions will start STL 5 as short-priced favourites.
Whether partners Reid and van der Kaay remain Sharks, are shifted to another team or even split up in different squads is another intriguing question mark. Super League was born in 2017, the
brainchild of Michael D’hulst, entrepreneur Leonid Boguslavsky and four-time triathlon World Champion Chris McCormack.
Confirmed SLT 5 Athletes
Men: Jonny Brownlee (GBR), Alex Yee (GBR), Hayden Wilde (NZL), Matt Hauser (AUS), Vincent Luis (FRA), Henri Schoeman (RSA), Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR), Vasco Vilaca (POR), Léo Bergere (FRA), Chase McQueen (USA), Seth Rider (USA), Shachar Sagiv (ISR), Kenji Nener (JPN), Max Stapley (GBR), Emil Holm (DEN), Dan Dixon (GBR), Taylor Reid (NZL), Sergio Baxter Cabrera (ESP), Roberto Sanchez Mantecon (ESP) and Vitalli Vorontsov (UKR), Adrien Briffod (SUI).
Women: Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR),
London - August 27
Toulouse - September 3
Malibu - September 30
NEOM - October 21
Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA), Beth Potter (GBR), Sophie Coldwell (GBR), Taylor Spivey (USA), Katie Zaferes (USA), Summer Rappaport (USA), Kate Waugh (GBR), Olivia Mathias (GBR), Fanni Szalai (HUN), Verena Steinhauser (ITA), Miriam Casillas Garcia (ESP), Nicole van der Kaay (NZL) and Barbara De Koning (NED), Jess Fullagar (GBR), Alice Betto (ITA).
Think it takes years of training and toil to represent New Zealand at a World Triathlon Age Group Championship?
Allow Warren Dohnt to change your mind. The Triathlon Tauranga club member’s 34th placing in the 45-49 age group sprint in Hamburg was just his fifth triathlon!
Dohnt is the epitome of all that is great about the Tri NZ Suzuki NZ Series- World Triathlon eco-system.
Get involved in Tri NZ’s national championship series this summer and you could be off to the 2024 World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Townsville (August 14-25) and/ or the World Triathlon Championship Finals in Malaga (October TBC). All the details at Triathlon.kiwi. Don’t be put off by the race titles, there is an event for all ages and stages of triathlon, duathlon (both including off road ‘cross’ events), aquabike and aquathlon. You could even win a Suzuki Swift by simply entering and sticking around for the prizegiving at your selected race/s. There is a one in 15 chance to win in 2023-24!
Hamburg, Germany (July 13-16)
Lucy McLean
Ryan Marfell
Blake Miller
Taylah Arlidge
Kieran Coates
Christian Davey
Nic Sowerby
Warren Dohnt
Oonagh Turner
Julie Morgan
Tanya Winter
Ritchie Watson
Dean Rees
Team NZL Mixed Relay
Kevin Fee
Raelene Rees
Malcolm Elley
Alan
Kieran Coates’ has reembraced the tri life and had his reward in Hamburg. Read the Auckland City Tri Club member’s inspirational bronze medal story HERE
Train brilliantly with Forerunner® 965, the premium GPS running and triathlon smartwatch with a bright AMOLED touchscreen display and lightweight titanium bezel The training readiness feature tells you when you’re primed for a productive session — while multi-band GPS and full-colour, built-in maps keep you on track when you’re en route.
It’s October 1989 and I’m preparing for the Commonwealth Games triathlon to be raced in Auckland in four months time. I rate my chances for a good result on home territory as I’d trained hard over the winter months and am in superb form, ready to tackle the two qualifying races. As the host country, New Zealand is assigned a full quota of six spots for both males and females so I consider the qualifying events a mere formality. Then, one morning, I wake up with a sore throat.
‘No worries – a few easy days and I’ll be fine,’ I think. But the sore throat doesn’t go away, and after a week of taking it easy I start to lose some of my hard-won fitness. I go back to training and ignore the symptoms. Besides the sore throat, fatigue creeps in. It is not the normal fatigue which comes standard with hard training. This is more like the draining, zombie-like exhaustion which comes with illness and which distinguishes itself from training fatigue by a drop in training performance.
I don’t sleep well, experience night sweats and start to lose my appetite as well as my motivation to train. I become irritable and depressed. Being a medical practitioner is not helpful. Doctors are notorious for ignoring their own symptoms. I also do not have a coach to consult. I have coached other athletes to world championship titles so, surely, I know what is good for me.
I battle on and drag myself out of bed in the mornings to get to the pool for another session of self-abuse. I force myself to eat and be nice to people, all the time well aware that I am running out of time.
By ignoring my symptoms, I dig myself into a hole by the time the first selection event is held in Auckland in early November, three months out from the Games. Ranked second behind Rick Wells, I finish fifth, my place in the team suddenly under threat. With foolish determination I keep ignoring the signals from my body. Somehow, I pull an adequate performance out of the hat at the final selection race, finishing a distant second behind Rick, but securing my selection spot.
The Games are coming closer and there are no signs of improvement. I need a miracle to turn things around. But miracles only happen to the religious and the gullible, so I keep training and arrive at the race fooling myself that things are not too bad and all I need is ‘a good day’.
The triathlon at the Games is a huge success with the Kiwis coming out to the Auckland waterfront en masse to watch
the spectacle. It is not a success for me personally. After a choppy swim, I am well out of contention, two minutes down on the lead group. Where I normally make some gains on the bike, I now have difficulty holding my own. The bike course takes in Grafton Hill, one of my favourite hill climbs. This time it feels like Mount Everest, my heavy legs turning round in what feels like slow motion. The run is no better. All I want is to be out of sight but there is nowhere to hide. I am relieved to finally see the finish line. The only consolation for me is the fact that my teammates Erin Baker and Rick Wells both win gold.
The symptoms I experienced will be familiar with some readers who take their training serious, if you are an elite athlete or an ambitious age grouper. Most of us experience a time in our career that we ‘hit the wall’ with higher levels of fatigue than normal, combined with a loss of motivation. It is not uncommon that a minor cold or viral infection, which refuses to go away, is part of the problem. These are all signs of the overtraining syndrome.
Overtraining is caused by a combination of too much (high intensity) training, and not enough recovery. The lack of recovery applies in particular to the ambitious age grouper, who has a job and a family and prefers to sacrifice recovery for some extra training. Sooner or later the body and mind will protest and threaten to shut down.
“Sooner or later the body and mind will protest and threaten to shut down.”
A higher than usual resting and training heart rate can be a warning sign that all is not well.
A period of relative rest is what is called for. Relative rest means only very easy and short training sessions and not more than one per day and with two rest days per week. If caught early, a couple of weeks of doing this will see you right. If ignored, the symptoms will persist or get worse. The longer you ignore the symptoms, the longer it will take to recover. Underlying illness needs to be excluded and when symptoms persist it is a good idea to consult a (sports) medical practitioner. They can run some tests to exclude medical conditions like
iron deficiency anaemia, a low functioning thyroid, an irregular heartrate, specific viral infections (e.g., glandular fever) and other medical conditions which can mimic the symptoms of overtraining.
Prevention of overtraining includes an awareness of the symptoms and ongoing monitoring of subjective wellbeing, training performance, weight, morning heart rate and heart rate response during training.
In summary, when doing more than one training session most days, some of which contain a high intensity component, be on the look-out for symptoms of overtraining, in particular when other life stresses
interfere with your much needed recovery. Monitoring of your resting and training heart rate and subjective perception (how you feel, your energy levels, any muscle soreness, sleep quality, appetite etc.) are the most useful tools to pick up any early signs of overtraining. Backing off for a few days will likely see you right so you can re-start your training refreshed and renewed. If symptoms persist, consult a medical professional.
This article is an abstract from a more extensive and in-depth article John wrote recently for ‘Endurance Essentials’ a substack from feelthebyrn.com. It can be accessed HERE
HEATHER NEILL
@heather.neill96
Training for and completing a triathlon is a challenge. Normal, everyday life adds inevitable complexity but sometimes the curveballs are extraordinary, completely beyond your control.
Cyclone Gabrielle battered the North Island in early February and in Hawke’s Bay, where I live, life hasn’t been the same since for many people. I lived in Christchurch during the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and the experience was comparable in terms of being a civil defence emergency and
natural disaster, but it was also entirely different. The earthquakes were continuous and rocked the whole region, so everyone feared when the next shake might be and the damage it may bring. With Gabrielle, communication was wiped out across a large area for a long time but only severely affected pockets of people knew the severity of the situation in the immediate aftermath. Most others were unaware of the tragedies unfolding, myself included. Once the rain stopped, it became evident the impact was
significant and the fallout would be prolonged.
The cyclone hit about three weeks prior to Taupo 70.3 which I had planned to be my next race. Valentines’ Day morning started in the small hours with gale- force winds and torrential rain. I had been on call for after-hours emergencies overnight and went into work for a 7:30am start. About half an
hour later, all electricity in the greater Hawke’s Bay region went down and all communication services ceased to function. It was only through my car radio and word of mouth that we learned the severity of what our region was facing.
In the distance, the bells from the local clock tower echoed. There was an eeriness to the sound almost as if the dependable regularity of the tolling bells were mocking the normality that had existed mere days prior. The distinctive sound of helicopters working tirelessly overhead to provide aid to the stranded and struggling had become the new normal. Military aircraft soared through the clouds and after a few days, the novelty of seeing a Hercules wore off. The scenes and sounds were almost akin to a war zone minus the explosives. Sirens wailed. After a couple of days, the sun came out but it was bittersweet and unable to be enjoyed. People all around had lost their homes, their vehicles, their pets, their livelihoods, their jobs and in the worst cases, members of their families. The literal fruits of people’s labours littered the main roads from the local orchards where water had stripped trees of their apples. Petrol pumps were depleted. Power was still out. Internet was inaccessible. Crime was rife. Silt
was everywhere. Water restrictions were in place. Our freezer was thawing out so we had steak for breakfast. Twice.
It was a new challenge to work at a vet clinic with no power. Not only were we without lights, there were no x-rays, no blood tests, no EFTPOS, no fridges for vaccines, no patient records and no phone lines for booking appointments. Whilst my work hours were modified during this period, I was unable to use my extra ‘spare’ time for training.
During regular training, there’s barely a day where I don’t shower at least twice, and there’s always copious amounts of sweaty clothing inevitably produced by training for three intensely cardiovascular sports simultaneously. Almost all outdoor cycling routes were underwater or inaccessible due to collapsed bridges. Zwift wasn’t an option for at least the first week because of the power outage. Pools were closed for weeks. Mostly, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to be training outside whilst people scraped up their lives from the gutters.
It was obviously not ideal when I would otherwise have been peaking in fitness for the upcoming race. I am the sort of person who thrives off being busy as I’m sure a lot of you are too. Making the most out of every moment takes stringent management, efficiency and
meticulous planning of the finest details. This seems to put me in a position where I am precariously balanced on the fine line between productiveness and multiple successes versus crashing, burning and getting sick. Constantly. Sadly, two weeks after the cyclone, I came down with COVID for the second time right on race week. While I was devastated to pull out of the race, it was probably for the best, and there’s always another race. Sometimes you’ve just got to roll with the punches, adapt, refocus and look forwards to the next opportunity.
Races will roll around again and Gabrielle put that into sharp focus.
I’m exceptionally grateful to have been minimally affected by the wrath of the cyclone and my heart goes out to all those who were not so fortunate.
Heather Neill, 26, is a Companion Animal Veterinary Surgeon at Taradale Veterinary Hospital. She’s also quite good at triathlon, the 25-29 age group Long Distance champion at last year’s World Triathlon Multisport Championship in Šamorín, Slovakia.
“People all around had lost their homes, their vehicles, their pets, their livelihoods, their jobs and in the worst cases, members of their families.”
CHALLENGE WĀNAKA
From the first time racing on a road bike with cleats to filling the big shoes of outgoing Race Director Bill Roxburgh, Jane Sharman clearly isn’t afraid of a challenge. Integrity Homes Challenge Wanaka that is.
The Wānaka adoptee has taken on the role of Trust and Event Director, taking
over from Roxburgh who has stepped aside after 17 years of service to the most “picturesque Half in the world”.
Sharman took on the Wānaka Half in February, as great insight into event from an athlete’s perspective.
“It was just such a fantastic event to be a part of and definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I’d never ridden a road bike with cleats before I started training for the event,” Sharman said.
“I’ve watched my kids participate in the children’s events for so many years that I thought it was about time I gave it a go.”
Now Sharman, who has lived in Wānaka for the past seven years, will run the cutter. She brings a wealth of event management experience to the role including being Assistant Event Manager at the iconic Warbirds Over Wanaka, as well as setting up Relay for Life in Wānaka and Wānaka parkrun with her husband.
“I am so excited to be joining the Challenge Wānaka team… I am passionate about this event and what it means for our community,” Sharman said.
“I love the inclusivity of Challenge – ranging from the pro athletes to
the primary children and even preschoolers. The recent addition of the Adaptive event and the Cross Tri mean that nearly anyone can take part. I’m looking forward to learning from the many experienced team members involved and also exploring new ways to further develop Challenge Wanaka in our community.”
Challenge Wanaka Sports Trust Chairperson Jessica Garrett welcomed Sharman and paid tribute to Roxbrugh.
“We also want to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to our amazing outgoing Race Director, Bill Roxburgh, for all his hard work and dedication to Challenge Wanaka. Bill has been involved in the event for over 17 years and has been instrumental in growing the event into the largest triathlon festival in New Zealand with events for all ages and abilities.”
The Integrity Homes Challenge Wanaka Festival will be held from Feb 15-17 next year and will incorporate the Suzuki NZ Cross Tri, Cross Duathlon and Mid Aquabike Championships, Tri NZ Suzuki Series events at Glendhu Bay that serve as qualifiers for the 2024 World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Townsville.
Triathlon just wouldn’t be triathlon without the small army of Technical Officials (TOs) who selflessly ensure the sport’s spirit of competition is maintained and events are run safely across the country and around the world.
Tri NZ is committed to developing TOs and ensuring they are appropriately accredited and the latest recruitment drive is on with a cherry on top for anyone considering lending their weight to the
noble and rewarding pursuit. Get involved now and you could very well be part of the team set to officiate at the 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Taupo.
It’s as simple as signing up HERE, completing an online course (we’ll be there to help!) and then getting stuck at the World Champs dress-rehearsal at 70.3 Taupo this December 9 and Ironman NZ in March 2024.
The beauty of becoming a TO is you needn’t have a swim, bike or run background, just a willingness to learn, inspire and become part of an awesome community of volunteers. Better still, the role gives you a front row seat at the sport’s greatest events. It can also take you around the globe. Just ask Tony Sangster who will officiate at the Paris Olympic Games next summer (and at the Test event this August), Claire Hannan and Bryan Dunphy who were at the World Triathlon Sprint
& Relay Championships in Hamburg, Mel Schroeder (Commonwealth Youth Games) and Bali Beach Games bound Claire Hannan. For more info, contact Tri NZ Technical Support Ross Capill at technical@triathlon.kiwi.
PARIS OLYMPICS
World Triathlon has allocated US$120,000 in prize money to the August 16-20 Paris Olympic Test Event –$30,000 for each of the individual men’s and women’s races and $60,000 across the Para Cup categories.
The money is nice but the allure won’t be fiscal as much as golden with Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games qualification on the line. Under Tri NZ’s selection policy, a first Kiwi on the podium finish will secure a nomination to the NZ Olympic Committee, making the individual races for the women and men on August 17 and 18 respectively critical dates in the 2023 calendar. There’s also a Mixed Relay on Aug. 20, another ranking points opportunity for Team NZL who came so close to securing an automatic team slot for Paris, and two
male and two female individual starts as a consequence, at the World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championships in Hamburg on July 16. The spot went to Hamburg hosts Germany who pipped the NZL quartet of Hayden Wilde, Ainsley Thorpe, Tayler Reid and Nicole van der Kaay to the gold.
The key now for Team NZL is to be
inside the top six nations in the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Rankings at the March 25, 2024 cutoff, discounting France, GBR and Germany. At the time of print, NZL were up to third behind the United States and Germany, so essentially second, heading into WTSC Sunderland (July 30) and the Paris Test Event relay.
Kurt Peterson is no spring chicken in a sporting context, yet on a triathlon journey still very much in its infancy. But plenty of hard life knocks and all the will in the world might just turn him into New Zealand’s very first Paralympian triathlete, as Kent Gray discovers.
Kurt Peterson’s background story comes with forewarning from the colourful central character himself. This might take a while.
“I did this once with the documentary crew from Ironman and it went on for three hours…so…”
So…we’d been duly warned.
The abridged version of Peterson’s remarkable life, as it transpires, is no less of a rollicking ride. Our recording lasted precisely 38mins and 48secs and was full of rapid-fire revelations, aha moments and two particularly sobering disclosures, the second of which took Peterson to the depths of despair and continues to shape him to this day.
There’s the Cerebral Palsy of course, the symptoms of which fully came to light when the Aucklander was barely 18 months old. Save for the loving devotion of his mother Lynn during a childhood full of “many, many operations, speech therapy, walking therapy” and the like, Peterson suspects he’d be wheelchair-bound today.
But CP doesn’t define Peterson’s story, instead serving as a catalyst for all the epic adventures that have followed in his 35 years and counting.
Motor racing was a first sporting passion, triggered by the arrival of a farm quad bike at age six. A year later he was karting and by 14 mixing it up in the uber-competitive Formula Ford class, dreaming of becoming an F1 superstar. There was a fun return to
the track recently too at the B&H500 with the one-time apprentice mechanic helping build a car that needed to be adapted to the specific needs of a trio of drivers for Team Motive, an all-disabled collaboration.
“There was me with CP, Tony who has no legs, and Lee who has no use of his legs…”
As that quote richly articulates, you could easily be dragged down any number of fascinating rabbit holes yarning with Peterson. It’s little wonder three hours whizzed by for the Ironman filmmakers, so plentiful are the sporting milestones and life detours that make up his life story.
But we need to keep this on track, Kurt, get to that bit about your new dream, to become New Zealand’s first triathlon Paralympian.
It was a nice try but this is so darn compelling, a story so multi-faceted that you can’t help getting sucked backwards and forwards and “Ah, hold on, I’ll just go back a little” again.
There’s the bittersweet foray into the water business with his father Graeme (more on Vital Zing soon) that’s worthy of a business exposé in its own right, and one for the romantics involving a pretty Subway Sandwich artist called Harshi and a posttraining run footlong.
Through a triathlon lens, things crystalised when a pal challenged Peterson to evaluate where his already rollercoaster life was heading as we all groggily exited in and out of pandemic restrictions. Our man retorted by writing down 42 life goals and set about ticking them off, one “no regrets” dream after another. First a marathon – he’d already done a half – and after that, triathlon.
“…so two weeks after the marathon, I did my first Olympic-sized race at the [Barfoot & Thompson] Peoples Triathlon in Maraetai and… I sucked, really sucked,” Peterson says. “I didn’t quite finish last but we really struggled.”
More fuel for the internal fire in other words. Next up was Taupo 70.3, then the full
Ironman NZ, both including full-length dress rehearsals due to COVID cancellations.
When he finally made it to Taupo proper for Ironman 2022, delayed from March to a miserable early December day, Peterson had hired a house for a support crew of 14 to be part of his greatest challenge yet. Decked out in matching T-shirts so he’d be able to pick them out in the crowds, they devotedly willed their hero home in a very respectable 14:28:10, even if the final few of those 226km kilometres were a cold, hard slog.
It’s clear Peterson is built tough. A product of his disability? Absolutely and proudly so. Perhaps more fortifying though were the aforementioned incidents that rocked the Albany man to his core.
All athletes face hardship but Peterson’s sporting trough, playing witness to a Formula Ford crash in 2002 that cost Michael McHugh his life at Pukekohe Park Raceway at the age of just 15, was tougher than most.
The loss of his pal was an early and awful life lesson and more trauma was to follow on a fateful day in 2016 when Peterson found himself hauling water for the family business near Kaiwaka.
“He had a heart attack and [involuntarily] pulled out. I had about 10 metres to react with a loaded truck. Yeah, couldn’t do a hell of a lot from where I was,” Peterson recalls all too vividly.
“It was a surreal moment. I was [suddenly] administering oxygen to help the medics and he passed away in my arms effectively. I went to the funeral and the family was really welcoming, it was actually a really nice surprise.”
Still, the fog of such a life-altering incident inevitably descended and Peterson admits he had to haul himself back from “some nasty thoughts”. It’s one thing to lose someone in a controlled race track environment where everyone accepts the risks, quite another when you’re involved in a sudden, fatal
“For me, it’s always send it deep, hit it full throttle and do as much as you can with the time you’ve got. That’s kind of how I’ve rolled.”
accident on State Highway 1.
“I went to a pretty dark place after that, 100 percent. Pretty hard, pretty brutal, you were always kind of thinking was it my fault, was there anything I could have done to avoid it?
“It took me a while to go through the situation and go, actually, I probably couldn’t have done anything else after having examined the scene many times. I think with my motor racing reactions, that probably helped a lot, but…”
They’re moments that could easily have crushed a lesser soul. Not a lifelong fighter like Peterson though, with due deference to how hard it has been.
Motorsport and now triathlon have afforded opportunities that are too good to be true, much less wasted. Indeed, he feels a responsibility to ensure every aspect of his life is given an almighty nudge, if not for himself then for everyone associated with the Cerebral Palsy Youth Alliance and the Cerebral Palsy Society.
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned from this, you go to a Christmas function say, and people are ….they’re not very active and they can only move their fingers but they are rocking those fingers and they’ve got the biggest smiles on their faces,” Peterson recalls of an event he guest emceed.
“That for me was one of the biggest fires in my belly. I’ve got to showcase what they can do and the joy you get from that. If I can break some stereotypes and push the boundaries of what disability is…if we can do Ironmans and triathlons and motorsport, there isn’t a hell of a lot of things people with disabilities can’t achieve.”
Having only just fully committed to a campaign, Peterson has left himself a lot to achieve if he is to shatter another glass ceiling and become New Zealand’s first Paralympian triathlete in Paris in September 2024.
Up until the World Triathlon Para Cup Long Beach on July 14, his only previous offshore race was an Oceania Cup race in Busselton. The WA trip was a “nervewracking” eye opener where he was learning the ropes in the form of unknown rules as late as the athlete’s briefing the night before. The course recce, meanwhile, wasn’t until the morning of his international debut.
A time of 1:23:06 for the 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run sprint was a PB and good for a silver medal in the PTS4 category but he knows faster splits are needed to expedite his ranking points quest.
You see, Peterson finds himself in a chicken-and-egg scenario familiar to many of his able-bodied compatriots hoping to qualify for the Olympics; you need ranking points to get races and races to get ranking points. You also need a bundle of cash to make either a reality in this cut-throat business so if you’re looking for a worthy cause, check out ‘Kurt’s Adventure to Paris 2024!’ on FACEBOOK or at his GIVEALITTLE page. Every little bit helps.
With coach Rob Dallimore now more permanently in his corner, personal trainer Bayley Garnham upping the ante in the gym and partner Harshi taking care of logistics, Peterson had hoped to shed up to three minutes off his time at Long Beach
but unforunately crashed on the bike and finished in 1:29:07. There’s still hope of getting to the Paris test event in Augiust which would be a lovely birthday present with Peterson set to turn 36 the day after the Para racing in France. There are also opportunities at the World Triathlon Para Championships in Pontevedra, World Para Cup Alhandra in Portugal and Asian Para Cup Subic Bay in the Philippines later in the year to weigh up.
As you’ve already gathered, Peterson is up for the challenge. And he’s thinking beyond Paris to the LA 2028 Olympics too, just in case you’re looking for a longer-term investment, emotional or otherwise.
“It’s been really interesting, just trying to balance the demands of life,” Peterson says of the journey so far. “I’ve probably thrown myself in almost too deep trying to run a motor-racing team, a production line at work and the triathlon scenarios as well. But for me, it’s always send it deep, hit it full throttle and do as much as you can with the time you’ve got. That’s kind of how I’ve rolled.
“I’m pretty old in the scheme of things, coming up 36, but the way I see it when your best years are now, kind of your twilight, the opportunity is now or never. I’m going to push hard and see what I can achieve but also try to build up the sport and inspire a whole generation of paratriathletes along the way.“
Perhaps the next chapter in Peterson’s life will be entitled the Twlight Zone. Either way, it is already shaping up as the most compelling yet.
Could the world’s best race for Olympic gold at an indoor pool, on a static bike and treadmill one day?
A pair of Kiwi teens helped World Triathlon and the IOC trial the concept in Singapore.
Coen Anderson, as teens are want to do nowadays, embellished it beautifully.
“Craaazy business trip to Singapore,” the Saint Kentigern College student wrote on social media. “Absolutely stoked for Team Oceania to take out the gold medal and could not have hoped for a better experience being part of the @Olympic Esports Week. Loved every second of it…”
For the uninitiated, the reigning NZ Secondary Schools champion was racing alongside Manawatu Triathlon Club’s Lucy Evans (pictured) and Aussies Hannah Pollock and Jack Latham for Team Oceania at the inaugural Olympic Esports Week.
It was an event where traditional sport met video gaming in the IOCs efforts to future-proof the movement. Indeed, the Kiwi teens may very well look back on their golden week in Singapore years from now as the moment that changed the very shape of triathlon at the Olympic Games.
The duathlon, raced on treadmills and stationary bike trainers at the Suntec Singapore Convention Centre, was one of the “exhibition matches” being staged on the sidelines of the 10 Olympic Esports Series finals: virtual cycling, archery, sailing, dance, baseball, chess, tennis, shooting, motorsport and Taekwondo.
Among the other exhibition matches being contested alongside the Duathlon were VR Table Tennis, Rocket League, Street Fighter, and eFIBA NBA2K23 basketball.
“None of us knew what to expect,” Evans said. “We went in there thinking we could get in the top three, so when we won it, we were pretty surprised.”
A second round of the Tri NZ Esport Series is set to go August 2. Stay tuned to Triathlon.kiwi HERE for more details.
Champions of the first series were Ben Ruthe and Deb Fuller (A Cat), Stuart Lynch and Hannah Martin (B Cat), Nick Taylor and Lauren Revie (C Cat) and Lee Ornz and Simone Faulkner (D Cat).
After nearly two decades building a reputation as one of the most revered short-course triathletes on the planet, Andrea Hansen is loving the transition from elite sportswoman to “world-class mum” in training.
The Christchurch 40-year-old has officially called time on her glittering 18-year-old career, sensationally ignited when she became U23 world champion in Japan in September 2005 – just seven months after taking up the sport.
Hansen (née Hewitt) went on to represent New Zealand at three Olympic and four Commonwealth Games and had her rich contribution to the sport celebrated on the sidelines of World Cup New Plymouth in late March.
Her family and coach, Dr. John Hellemens, were among those on hand to honour Hansen who choose last July’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where she finished 18th individually and 4th as part of the NZL team in the Mixed Relay, as her swansong.
“I was training for the Tokyo Olympics [originally scheduled for 2020] but when the world turned upside down with COVID, it just worked out it was a good time to start a family,” Hansen said.
Daughter Flossie arrived in early 2021 and Hansen expertly juggled motherhood and training for Birmingham.
“After Flossie, I didn’t know how that was going to go but I always thought I would get back into some sort of sport and it just happened that the Commonwealth Games was the next year so it all worked out.”
Sport and fitness will always play a part in Hansen’s life but Flossie, not long two, is the immediate priority.
“I was just talking about this with someone this morning and they were
saying, after being a world-class triathlete, you’ve decided to try to become a worldclass mum so that’s what I’m trying to do,” Hansen said.
“I’ll definitely keep being fit. Not going to stop and do nothing, just for health and fitness, just keep moving, I’ll still be out there. It’s pretty hard to stop after training three times a day, every day.”
Hansen swam competitively and represented New Zealand at surf lifesaving in the early 2000s. Her introduction to triathlon came when she went to see Dr. Hellemans who had founded Tri NZ’s HP program in 1996. That led to Hansen racing the nationals in Hawke’s Bay in February 2005 where she qualified for the worlds in
“Probably my first world champs in Gamagōri because, like, I was so new to it,” Hansen answered when pressed for career highlights.
“I remember being interviewed beforehand and pretty much every question I answered was with ‘I don’t know’ because I actually didn’t know. And when I won the race, the U23 world champs, I remember Bevan [Docherty] telling me triathlon is not that easy, this is a hard sport.
“Some of the girls had already been to the Olympics in Athens [in 2004], there were definitely favourites for the race and I’d never raced them and I just…I don’t know [how I won]. That was my answer to
The following March, Hansen’s meteoric rise to stardom continued as she captured the individual bronze medal at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. She finished 3rd in her first World Triathlon Cup race in Mooloolaba a week later and celebrated her maiden World Cup victory at Kitzbühel, Austria in July 2007.
Peppered with much success in the French Grand Prix scene, Hansen went on to become one of the most consistent performers on the World Triathlon circuit. It was highlighted by a purple patch in 2011 when she won three races in a row – the Beijing World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) Final, WTCS Yokohama and World Cup Auckland – and finished second
in the overall WTCS.
Hansen went on to finish runner-up in the WTCS again in 2015 and was 3rd in 2009, 2012 and 2014. She memorably rose to World No.1 at the beginning of 2017 with wins in Abu Dhabi and at the Gold Coast.
She recorded 8th, 6th and 7th place finishes at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympic Games respectively and added 4th, 13th and 18th places at the 2014 Glasgow, 2018 Gold Coast and 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games to her bronze in Melbourne.
There was also a bronze medal to savour with Ryan Sissons, Tayler Reid and Nicole van der Kaay in the Mixed Relay on the Gold Coast.
“It’s been amazing to represent my country,” Hansen said. “I wouldn’t want to compete for any other country, competing for New Zealand around the world is pretty cool, we’re welcomed everywhere and NZ has a good sporting record so it was great to be part of it.”
On March 26 in New Plymouth, the sport played the mutual appreciation game with an athlete who has done her sport, and nation, immensely proud.
2WD/AWD Hybrid tech, advanced safety, criminally good looks. Discover why Suzuki’s new Vitara Hybrid is perfect for adventorus Kiwis.
Suzuki Vitara has long been a favourite for adventure seeking Kiwis.
Roaming far and wide, this compact SUV has always over delivered for its size, especially in fuel efficiency and allround capability. So it comes as no surprise, the recently released Vitara Hybrid has all of the good stuff, with the added benefit of helping us reduce our carbon footprint even further.
Utilising Suzuki’s renowned 1.4 litre BoosterJet turbo engine, the mild hybrid
system in the Vitara Hybrid incorporates a self-charging 48 volt lithium ion battery powering an integrated starter generator. This clever combination means you not only get efficient performance in the city, open road cruising becomes effortless and there’s plenty of off-road muscle when you need it.
Suzuki’s Smart Hybrid technology includes electric engine assist and torque fill control and boost for that extra bit of economical
oomph. The engine stop-start function is a very handy and effortless way to save on fuel – turning the Vitara Hybrid off while you are waiting for the traffic light to turn green and reactivating when you are ready to go again.
As a self-charging and low emitting hybrid, there’s no need to worry about changing the way you drive or plugging in to recharge. When adventure calls, just throw everything in the back, load up your favourite people and just go. For those who enjoy driving stick shift, there is a 6-speed manual or let the car do the work with a 6-stage automatic transmission and paddle shifters on the steering wheel.
The Vitara Hybrid comes in not only the ‘perfect for getting around in’ 2WD, but also the ‘get out of town and go wild’ AWD. The intuitive ALLGRIP technology with four selectable modes – SNOW, SPORT, AUTO & LOCK, maximises the performance of the transmission, engine and safety systems depending on the road surfaces and driving conditions you face. This is ideal for when you head off the regular road and you need extra traction and control.
Across the range, you’ll find a comprehensive list of safety technology to look after you and your passengers.
Along with seven airbags, adaptive cruise control, automatic lights, the Vitara Hybrid includes Dual Sensor Brake Support, Suzuki’s equivalent of auto emergency braking (AEB), and blind spot monitoring for making it easier and safer to change lanes on the motorway.
Problems with getting in and out of parking are a thing of the past with the reverse camera, and rear cross traffic alert lets you know when a vehicle is approaching while you are reversing.
Any road trip needs a good playlist, so connect your phone through Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or Bluetooth and turn the volume up or change song using the steering wheel controls. Pop your phone into the handy console box to avoid the distraction and tap the touchscreen to set where you want to go. It’s as easy as that.
The new Vitara Hybrid range starts from a very competitive recommended retail price of $39,990 plus on road costs. Plus every new Suzuki includes a five-year extended warranty package and five-years of Suzuki Roadside Assistance. See suzuki.co.nz or talk to a Suzuki dealer today.
GARTH BARFOOT CAREFULLY RESTS HIS walking poles against the wall at the front door, by doing so luckily reserving his favourite outside table. “I like to sit here so I can keep an eye on what’s going on,” he shares with a mischievous grin before heading in to order.
He’s greeted like the local legend he is by the familiar faces behind the counter at ‘Standing Room Espresso’ and orders his usual flat white, today accompanied by a single slice of ginger bread.
Back outside, our interview begins but is peppered with pauses, if not for a sip of coffee and a bite of bread, then to greet café regulars and passers-by including two members of the local constabulary. At one point a middle-aged gent he doesn’t recognise hovers. “I’m just waiting to pay my respects to Mr. Barfoot...”
Real Estate king. Triathlon legend. Generous benefactor of New Zealand sport. A humble and popular man of
87 reasons, one for every year of a life lived to the full, why we love Garth Barfoot, Tri NZ’s inspirational Patron.
the people.
Indeed, Barfoot continues to be an exemplifier of living life to its full, a rich existence focused on family, friends, health and the well-being he knows sport brings to others.
At 87, the dual North Harbour and Auckland City Triathlon Club life member is doing his upmost to thumb his nose at Father Time, even though our chat is briefly tinged with melancholy as Barfoot concedes his competitive days in triathlon are
BELOW: The legend gets some encouragement from Hayden Wilde in New Plymouth
OPPOSITE PAGE: Barfoot has been a flag bearer for NZL on many occassions; powering through the Onehunga Half
done. He’s finding the swims a bit cold nowadays which impacts his coordination and reaction time on the bike. When you’ve had three hip ops already, well, the prospect of a fourth just doesn’t appeal.
But there is no time for pity. Tri NZ’s legendary Patron is too busy training for the New York Marathon in November. And holding court at the café.
“Hold on, I’ve just got to say hello to Colleen,” he whispers leaning in,
before leaning out and rousing his friend from her cuppa further down the footpath with an enthusiastic ‘Colleen!’
Back on track, we duck and weave through his sporting life and business times. When he’s not being humorous, there’s honesty and thoughtfulness in his answers.
Triathlon friends and family, unbeknown to Barfoot at the time, have already added deep insight into the character, sprinkled throughout
the transcribe that follows. Enjoy. Barfoot still finds it a hoot that he got his name in the “small print” – aka the sports results when they were still a thing in newspapersafter his first triathlon at age 56. It’s only fitting that his last tri is marked by the bold font on the cover of a digital magazine that, while not as revered as his beloved NZ Herald, is devoted to a sport that has been kind to Garth Barfoot. But not half as generous as he’s been to triathlon.
It’s a small tribute from Tri NZ to its esteemed Patron. We hope the piece does you justice Garth, and wish you Godspeed for New York. – Kent Gray. ***
Barfoot was born on May 24, 1936. It was a Sunday. Michael Joseph Savage was PM while on the other size of the world, trouble was brewing. History shows Dutch Bishops forbid membership to the Nazi party on this very day. On a jollier note, Tony Lazerri of the New York Yankees became the first player in MLB history to hit two grand slams [ 11 RBI ] in the same game. Barfoot would, coincidently, go on to play softball at school.
“In the summer I played softball because I was scared of the ball in cricket [laughs], and in winter I played rugby. Everyone at Auckland Grammar was expected to play
a winter sport unless they got a medical certificate. Normal people played rugby, the odd ones played hockey and soccer. I was small for my age so that made me the hooker.”
– Garth Barfoot
“The first memory of my childhood was when I just turned five and we moved to our own place in Panmure and the Japanese invasion threat was very dominant. I can remember my brothers building
If you note his shoes, they have had holes in them since at least from 2019...
an air raid shelter, and my father, and they put me in the trench and went away and I cried.” – GB.
“I went to Panmure Primary. The first memory I’ve got of school is of the teacher having an old chalk box fall of sawdust and when I soiled my trousers and put a bit on the floor, she came along with the box of sawdust and put it on it, so obviously it was something that had happened before [laughs]!” – GB.
“I got to know Garth during my first world champs as team manager in Pontevedra in 2019. I learnt of his love of McDonald’s thick shakes. Lime! As soon as we got somewhere one of his first questions was ‘where’s the nearest McDonald’s?’ and that is was promptly followed by ‘don’t tell Judy’.“ – Tri NZ Community Manager Mel Saltiel.
“What we have in common is that we have both been flag bearers for our country’s teams, what we don’t
have in common is our pre-race diet. I have had a milkshake in the Yas Island Mall every night this week.”
– Barfoot talking about American rival Jim Farr, then 89, ahead of the 2022 World Triathlon Age Group Championships in Abu Dhabi.
“My first triathlon is documented because I got my name in the Herald [laughs]. I was so pleased because I got my name in the small print
ABOVE Barfoot exits the water at the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Finals in Abu Dhabi
I’ve got an artificial heart, I’ve got an artificial hip, I’ve got glasses, I’ve got false teeth...
because in those days, my name was in large print most days” - GB.
“It was at Lake Pupuke, sponsored by Fay Richwhite, he became quite famous. It [later] got cancelled, the council withdrew permission, they didn’t like the idea, or one councillor I suppose, didn’t like the ideal of these Merchant Bankers making money out of our natural assets.” - GB
“When I did my first triathlon and got my name in the paper, it was like the first sip of a drug, an addiction which lasted 30 years. My last triathlon I got disqualified [extended laughs] so maybe it was time to give up.” - GB
In his penultimate triathlon, before his now famous DQ in Abu Dhabi, Barfoot claimed silver in the 85-89 age-group Super Sprint,
completing the 400m swim, 10km bike, 3km run on Yas Island in a sizzling 1:19:15.
“I’ve had so many obstacles and things gone wrong with me. Four weeks ago I was in hospital and so to recover and to be able to do the race, it was quite something for me,” Barfoot told TQ at the time.
“I’m so lucky. I’ve had everything… I’ve got an artificial heart, I’ve got an artificial hip, I’ve got glasses, I’ve got false teeth. The only thing that hasn’t been worn out is my knees and ankles, the knee joints and all those muscles in the legs, I’m so lucky that that is fine.” - GB
“Dad was always physically active, always out, even when we were at home, he’d be out in the garden. Mum and Dad had this massive vege garden and if he wasn’t in the garden he’d be helping out around the community.” – Kiri Barfoot.
“We were in the middle of the big COVID 19 lock down. Our girls and I were running through the bush in Birkenhead. We saw an old guy wielding an axe! Of course it was Garth, doing his usual track maintenance around Birkenhead.” –Fit for Fun/North Harbour Triathlon Club head coach Stephen Farrell
“I call it Barfoot’s Bridge. It’s
the third generation bridge that Garth has built to bridge the tracks between Island Bay Rd and Soldier’s Bay. He built them by hand. The first two were condemned by the council and destroyed. The third one has been spared from the demolition ball and is still useable.” – SF
“Before he got into triathlon, he’d take us on tramps, these long walks in the Waitakere’s, and he’d say, ‘it’s just a short walk’ you know, never say how long it was and the end was always ‘just around the corner’. The walks were always like six to eight hours, we were always out there doing physical stuff and we got rewarded with those Long Milkshakes. That was our reward for walking for eight hours with Dad.” – KB
“We were always doing stuff and as kids we were probably reluctantly dragged into it I think but you didn’t have much choice in those days, parenting was like, ‘this is what we
are doing’. You didn’t negotiate, right.” – KB
Barfoot, who began running long before he started triathlon, completed the 2022 London Marathon last October in 08:17:19. Aged 86 at the time, he became the second oldest finisher ever in London.
“Legend! So impressive [his London effort]. I will always appreciate how generous you are with your time and experience when travelling with younger - everyone else these days!!- athletes and even their unfit parents. Obviously you also provide sponsorship $ to so many and that doesn’t go unnoticed as it allows so many to participate when they otherwise couldn’t possibly do so. What a massive inspiration in every way.” Sue Oxley on Facebook.
“3:35 is my best time for the marathon, that was Rotorua. Today? Well I did 8:17 in London but since then of course I’ve had the hip operation and I’m not yet back to that speed. I tried the Kirikiriroa Marathon, what I call the Hamilton marathon, and I pulled out there at 32km and that would have been around 9 hours. And then I did a half marathon at Onehunga, that’s the one where I made my own sticks from flax bushes [laughs].” - GB
“I’m not looking at it, there’s no maybes, I’m going to the New York Marathon. It’s November 5th so that gives me time to get over all the incidents and accidents.” – GB
“I’m not allowed the poles in New York because it’s a terrorist threat … no knapsacks, no poles. But once I’ve started, maybe I could make some [more laughs].” - GB
“I love the atmosphere. I don’t go single to these things, I always go in a group, so it’s an adventure. The whole package, it’s a very personal experience, it’s a challenge and of
course the advantage of New York is we entered a long time ago, over a year, so that sort of keeps you going and gets you over these tribulations, the damages.” – BS
“If you note his shoes, they have had holes in them since at least from 2019. I have pictures of him on the podium in Pontevedra with those shoes. Every time I offered to replace them, he would say ‘but why, my feet are comfortable and they stay nice
when we got there. Who volunteered to be our driver and general dogsbody? Garth!” – SF.
“On the same ride, we’d just cycled past the geographical centre of the North Island and were in dense bush. We cycled around the corner and there was Garth with his camera. He’d walked about 5km from the road end to ‘get the perfect shot’. However, he was too slow to press the shutter and he missed the shot so we had to double back, on his orders, to take the photo again.” – SF
“Dad loves his technology. We were one of the first families in my school to get a video recorder, a VHS. We had a really cool stereo, so he was like what you’d call an early adopter. He’d buy the latest gadgets when most people were like, no, that’s just a fad. He probably had a Garmin watch when it was a new thing but I haven’t quite got him on Strava yet.” – KB
“The thing I learned about business? You get out what you put in.” – GB
“I was born into real estate. My father wasn’t very keen at one stage because he didn’t think the future was too bright, the war time controls didn’t get lifted straight away so there were rigid price controls which resulted in a lot of under the table dealings. At that time, everyone was very frightened of the socialism model coming from Moscow, and he thought there wouldn’t be any room and cool’.” – MS
“He’s always wearing mismatched gloves, he keeps losing them but why throw away a perfectly good glove when he can make a pair out of two odds?” – MS
“In 2022, the year IMNZ was cancelled/postponed because of COVID, we decided to mountain bike from Auckland to Taupo over three days and do an off-road triathlon
ABOVE: A smile to light up dusk on Takapuna Beach
The thing I learned about business? You get out what you put in.
for sales people in the new economy, just civil servants.” – GB
“What did I like about real estate? I don’t think I ever thought about it like that. It’s what you did. I did what my father did. Obviously in later years when I could have retired I used to say, well it’s nice and sociable. You come in and everyone is nice to you and talks to you and I’ve got a secretary who makes me a cup of tea!” – GB
“I was doing the interviewing for the company [Barfoot & Thompson] for a quarter of a century and I was thinking, I’m not going to let you go until I’ve got a story about you in my head. The sales people had to be able to communicate. People now, when they come across me 25 years on, they’re quite likely to recount the interview they had with me. And I’ll say, don’t tell me, it’ll come back to
me [laughs]…and sometimes it does. And they’re astounded when I can remember where they lived 30 years ago…it’s quite eccentric.” – GB.
“I also discovered his body may be slowing down but he is still very sharp mentally. On the way home [from the World Champs], he was doing all the stats on the team, peoples qualifying times compared to their race result etc.” – MS
“We go to Bungalo cafe after swim training three days a week. Every day, while we’re having coffee, Garth walks/runs past. I always yell out, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’ Usually he waves and carries on. Sometimes he just stops and joins us for coffee.” – SF
“The best piece of advice my Dad [Valentine] gave me? Oh. I don’t know that he gave me any advice as such but he was full of wise sayings. Quite a few businesses or real estate agents use to put on the outside, ‘honesty is the best policy’ and he always decried that saying, ‘it shows you that they had to think about it’. In other words, if it wasn’t the best policy, they wouldn’t have adopted it. He’s been dead 50 years now but I will always remember that.” – GB
“What sort of Dad has [Garth] been? He definitely wasn’t a helicopter parent. He didn’t give a lot of advice, you kind of had to
work everything out for yourself. He’d help ya when you needed to be helped but generally, apart from going on tramps, he wouldn’t force you to do anything.” – KB
“Both my parents [Val and Christine] came from England so they loved the outdoors. Their dream at Christmas was sitting under a Pohutakawa tree whereas everyone else was sort of oriented towards Christmas lunch and Christmas dinner. Other people had Christmas time for presents where our family, birthdays were presents, Christmas was camping.” - GB
“They were so keen on camping, the first photos of me of me were sitting in the pram at Takapuna Beach and they were taken when he [Valentine] had gone back to work. He’d catch the bus and ferry into work and we’d stay another fortnight camping on the beach because my mother liked the camping so much.” – GB
“We went camping at Christmas time and how Dad [Garth] managed to get three kids, Mum, a massive tent and everything else in the back of this Toyota sedan, I have no idea,” Kiri Barfoot continued. “And he wasn’t extravagant, people probably think we had the flashiest tent in the camp ground, well it was the other way around, we had the tent that didn’t have a bottom, we slept on bits of carpet. We didn’t have enough space in the car so we couldn’t take pillows so we’d take pillow cases and we’d have to shove our jerseys
in them. And it rains when you camp, right, so Dad would always take a shovel to dig a moat around the tent so water wouldn’t come in underneath.” -KB
“In winter time we went skiing, down in Ruapehu, they belonged to the ski lodge. Did you know that’s where Dad proposed to Mum [Judy], at the top of the Bruce [Road] at Whakapapa, just above Happy Valley?” – KB
“If you don’t enjoy the training side, you won’t keep going. I liked doing exercise, perhaps because I had a sedentary job, it was always a nice break. My father was the same, he had a very sedentary job and he was always keen on exercise, he was doing bicycle trips with my elder brothers during the Second World War when there was no petrol,
camping and catching the train.”GB
“Mum [Christine] was very healthy. In those days she was a health freak before people were health freaks so we were into eating the skin of fruit. Other people were pruning fruit, and of course always wholemeal bread, never white flour, that was a sin. And sugar was a sin.” - GB
“He’s pretty careful about what he eats which I think is quite relevant in these days. People think you can eat whatever you want when you do Ironmans and triathlons but you actually can’t when you get older and he’s always …he might treat himself to a ginger crunch or a pie, a microwave pie we call them [laughs], but at the end of the day he still has for breakfast, rolled oats and a
banana, what he did as a kid. Pretty plain, less processed meals. He’s a role model.” – KB.
“I was so aghast, I went with my father to the office, when I was a schoolboy, and he has sugar in his tea! He said, ‘I don’t like to upset Christine’, that was my mother’s name, and then later on, my father said: ‘I always let Christine get her own way, that’s the secret to a happy marriage’.” – GB
“Subsequently, I was talking to my mother, and she said that she always let Val get his own way [laughs].” –GB
“When I joined TRI NZ and rang Garth to arrange a coffee catch-up to introduce myself, he suggested I meet him in Northcross, after he had done his parkrun. I said that sounded like a great plan, to which he replied, ‘actually, I think you
should come and do the parkrun with me, and we can grab a coffee afterwards.’ I didn’t feel it was a proposition I could back out of, so on the August 13, 2022, I completed my first parkrun at Sherwood Reserve in a time of 32.33, and enjoyed a well-deserved coffee afterwards with our very persuasive Patron.” – Tri NZ CEO Pete De Wet.
“I suppose it’s trying to learn from your own mistakes. You have
a post mortem after every race, the successful ones and the unsuccessful ones and try and minimise the problems and maximise the advantages.” – GB
“I finished 10 NZ Ironmans. I got my shirt and you wouldn’t believe this, when we were downsizing, that was one of the things that went to the clothes bin, my tee-shirt, I can’t believe it. I kept 15 of the Rotoruas [marathon], I thought that was
worth more [laughs].” – GB
“There’d be thousands, well hundreds. I use to give them away with the group I go camping with at Christmas for the children’s races. Very popular!” – GB on his medals.
“There was a guy called Bob Goddard, he was so good that unless the medal was a first place, he didn’t bother bringing them home!” - GB
“One quote in there from Garth that I like is: ‘I always said that when I retire from real estate, I‘m going to be a professional athlete and be paid in gold, silver and bronze’. It’s quickly followed by ‘I haven’t had many golds yet!’”- MS
“We shifted from our home of 50 years to a retirement village, you sort of half know you are not going to do another race but you don’t want to say goodbye. So Ryman made
“You have a post mortem after every race...and try and minimise the problems and maximise the advantages.”
a special effort to accommodate our bikes but they never got out of the spare bedroom. It’s time to say goodbye but you don’t want to say goodbye so I’ve got all this swimming and biking equipment.”
– GB“It’s a bit of one door closes, another door opens when I think that I won’t do another triathlon. It’s really coincided with the bike, my balance isn’t as good, my reaction time isn’t as good, and though I accept bicycle accents, I’ve had three necessitating hip operations and each time the recovery is longer. I just don’t want to have that.” - GB
“Technically I cracked the femur at the hip joint, it was the right leg, so that’s six months ago and I can still feel it’s there. After the usual post op check-up, the surgical team said, ‘oh no, you don’t have to come back now’, so I said ‘can I start racing again?’, and they said ‘I’d wait six months, end of July’, but that won’t stop me from competing in the Wellington Marathon this weekend.”
- GB“I love his passion and energy for the sport. He was very supportive in my ITU days and I always enjoy a chat when I see him. I remember having a conversation with him about training and his training is mainly all events, from O’Hagans to North Harbour swim-run then a half marathon/cycle event on the weekend. I love that he does more races than people half his age.” –
Rebecca Clarke“For some reason I never made the jump from the sprint triathlon to the standard distance triathlon [his famous DQ in Abu Dhabi last November]. You won’t believe it…I even trained for a sprint triathlon!”
- GB“The first race in Abu Dhabi was a Super Sprint and I got second in that. And the second race, I never picked
it up [that it was standard distance]. I thought, oh, this swim has been quite long hasn’t it, this must be the last buoy, I’ll turn there. So I turned and then a kayaker came up to me and said no, it’s there, that way. And I think, it can’t be, because I’m going away from the start and I’m, oh god. Finally I can turn and I’m making it hard work and when I get to the end, I was so exhausted…they had someone to take me out of the water, it was a very steep ramp, and I thought if I just get up the ramp, I won’t be able to help the helpers, they’ll tear my limbs off, do damage to me lifting me out. So what I’ll do, I’ll just stop a few metres out, just tread water and get my breath back. Even then I didn’t realise I’d swum 1500m, not 750m [laughs].” - GB
“So then I had an argument [hearty laughs]… with the race referee, he said you’ve got to…and I said no, you don’t know what you’re talking about. He said if you turn around here [on the bike course], I’ll disqualify you and he did. When I finished, I said to Mel [Saltiel], they got it wrong, and it was only when she started talking to me a bit more, she suddenly tweaked and I probably did at the same time that I’d got the distances wrong.” - GB
“It’s a somewhat ignoble end to a noble career.“ – GB
“I didn’t realise it was the end of my career because I’d got all the publicity, Kiri had filmed the settings [scene setter takes] for TVNZ on a camera like that [pointing to a cellphone]. It came out so well so I had a one liner on the news.” – GB
“Any good triathlon stories racing together? Well, I kind of have but the races I really wanted to do with Dad, he was either injured or didn’t finish. Like I was going to do Ironman with him, 2014 we decided to do it, that’s right, and we went skiing in Japan beforehand and he was so worried about falling over and breaking his
legs, so he took it easy, bought a helmet, didn’t break his leg in Japan, came back to Beach Haven and that’s when he had that first bike accident. A lady hit him at the Beach Haven roundabout, so we unfortunately didn’t do the Ironman together.”KB
“Our last one was meant to be in Abu Dhabi. There were two events, he came second in the Super Sprint, and the second one was a standard triathlon but he thought it was a sprint [laughs] so he didn’t finish that one either. After that I thought, I don’t think I’ll sort out any long events with Dad anymore because he doesn’t finish them. Maybe I jinxed it!”- KB
“Reading every word in The NZ Herald, that’s my other hobby. [Wife] Judy is the same, she likes to do that. My late business partner use to call the Herald the ‘Auckland Gem’. Sometimes I purposely don’t read the online stuff so I can look forward to having a nice long read of the paper in the evenings. Makes me sound old doesn’t it. Oh, I am old! [laughs].” – GB
“When we did parkrun a few weekends ago, I am very happy to report that Garth had found a new pair of shoes in the cupboard so has finally updated to an old new pair! His exercise gear is always branded and old but no holes and still works well so why replace it?” - MS
“My sporting hero? Well, my elder brother took me to Mt Smart to see John Walker, that’s a long time ago now. What did I like about him? His long hair, it flowed behind him.”GB
“No I didn’t [replicate the flowing locks in his heyday] because we had unwritten dress standards in real estate. I went to my daughters resignation party last night, 300 people there, but there were just
three people wearing ties and this was a business function. When I started, no one would ever dream of not wearing a tie.” – GB
“My daughter’s retired at 51. I retired at 81!” – GB
“I’m not giving up competing. I’ve already downloaded the results of the New York marathon from last year and sorted them all out. So I know what the standard is. Races have one rule for how long the race can last, the cut-off, and the other rule is how slow you can be and still get your result published. That’s the goal, to get my result published.” –GB
“The reality is that he’s been running quite slowly for quite a while now. We went for an easy run together about 10 years ago. Just near the end of the run, I noticed that he was panting quite heavily. I thought he was having a heart attack but it turned out he was trying to sprint to beat me back home. Note, there was no noticeable change in pace!” - SF
“He knows how to take a joke. Message from Garth: ‘Please come to my 80th birthday party. I’m having it at the Auckland Museum with all the other old fossils!’ - SF
“As long as I can do events, as long as there is an event that can accommodate my speed, I’ll carry on. I think obviously if I’m successful in New York, I’ll look around.
Because I was successful in London, that made me look around for New York.” – GB
“If you get a good group of people who are keen, it doesn’t matter what it is, they make their own enjoyment from their own company, whether it is tiddlywinks or volunteering. Volunteer groups really work on that basis.” – GB
“Triathlon has been part of my life. I like to be part of the scene and sure, it’s nice to go down and present the prizes but I also like to compete as well.” – GB
“Fortunately, real estate has been pretty good, well it was pretty good [laughs], and so I like to encourage others. With the Aquabike team [Barfoot helps subsidise qualifiers to the world champs], it has so many good points to it and we’ve honed it over the years to achieve those objectives.” – GB
“We are really grateful to have Garth as such a fierce supporter of our sport. And this goes beyond his generous financial contributions to the way he has inspired so many to get active and involved in triathlon. There is no greater inspiration than seeing Garth still line up to compete, and I know the whole triathlon community is grateful for everything he has done and continues to do for triathlon in New Zealand.” – PDW
“How I’d like to be remembered is showing the opportunities that sport gives to ordinary people. I didn’t come up through the sport as a winner or anything like that so it’s opened a lot of horizons. I suppose that is trite but it’s enabled me to live a wider life. I’d like to be remembered for giving people the chances I’ve had.” – GB
“For about three years in a row, I would qualify for the Ironman world champs in Kona and Garth would volunteer to pay my airfare to Kona. Every year I would turn down his offer. Finally, he said, ‘Go this year and I’ll pay for your whole family to go to Kona.’ How could I refuse?”
- SF“In running, you don’t have that thing of ordinary people going away, representing New Zealand, you’re either in the elite squad or the juniors or that’s it. In triathlon, you can say you’ve represented New Zealand, but you can’t say that if you go and do the New York marathon, you might be of New Zealand but you can’t say you’re representing New Zealand.” – GB
“I did my first ITU [now World Triathlon] event 30 years ago. Then there was no sprint distance and the oldest age category was 70 plus. I am very fortunate that triathlon aged up with me. Even now the advent of Super Sprint might be one way of keeping the door open.” – GB after Abu Dhabi 2022.
“No, no I don’t think I’ll do another triathlon [pause]. I was going to go to Hamburg this year and then I really…there was so many things causing difficulty with my training, with my age. The swimming, I was getting cold and it wasn’t just getting cold, you can just put a thicker hat on, it’s that you got cold and you started losing your coordination, and then you slowed down, and as you slowed down, you got colder, it was like a multiplier effect.” - GB
“I was already having a bit of trouble in the fun swims at Takapuna, I was taking quite a bit of time. The lifeguard said am I alright, and I said I’m a bit cold, and she said ‘is this your first race?’ Well, I’d only been doing the same race for 15 years!”
“What’s left on my bucket list? I find it is ever expanding. Doors are closing and doors are opening. It’s like doing a marathon at my age… people send me photographs of people in their 90 doing this and that, 89 years…even at 87 going to do New York, you’ve still got to finish it don’t you.” - GB
“I don’t want to set my heart on being the oldest because you can’t control that at all. You can get a 91 year old Japanese guy come up. There’s one guy, only one, older than me already and he’s done a lot so he’s likely to do it this year. So I can concentrate on creating my own age group, which is 85+ [ 85-89 ], and winning that. You look for sort of things that are icing on the cake.”
– GB
Reason 84 we love Garth Barfoot? “Garth’s stories”, as Mel Saltiel likes to call them. Barfoot concurs during our interview, starting one answer
BELOW
with: “This is a story, it’s only one of my half a million…”
“As you know, he always grabs the microphone. I think he’s quite an inspiration to so many people because of his age. I think he’s really tried to encourage older people to keep moving which is really, really good advice, but without preaching to people.” – KB
“What do my children [Henry, Christian and Kiri] think of me? I can’t say it myself but I think they are proud of me.” – GB
“I don’t know that I’ve tried to be anything other than myself.” - GB
Competing at Janurary’s Mt Festival of MultisportI can’t say it myself but I think they are proud of me.
Inspiring young New Zealanders since 1992, the Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon is a rite of passage for the sport’s critical next gen.
The Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon is the largest under-16 triathlon series in the world and this year returned for its 31st edition.
This iconic event has inspired over 475,000 kids to give it a TRY and with more than 15,000 participants crossing the finish line in 10 nationwide events this year, the smiles, high fives, and cheers said it all. It was indeed great to be back after the pandemicenforced break.
The Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon is a great introduction to an active and healthy lifestyle, a rite of passage for Kiwi kids. There have been many New Zealand sporting heroes who have participated in these events growing up including Sarah CowleyRoss, Simon van Velthooven, Sam Dempster and Alison Shanks to name a few.
New Zealand elite triathletes were in attendance this year, Ainsley Thorpe in South Auckland, Andrea Hansen in Christchurch and Olivia Thornbury and Janus Staufenberg in Dunedin, each proudly handing out medals and giving back to a sport that has taken them around the globe.
This year’s event in Christchurch will not only be remembered as a sell-out event but also for the amazing stories that will be sure
to inspire the next generation. Jim Rennie, the founder of the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon, stood proudly at the finish line with his daughter Nicola, who was the very first TRYathlete 31 years ago, and presented his granddaughter Chelsea with her champions medal. It was a very special moment for the family.
Another Christchurch local legend, 11-year-old Jonty Smolenski, was born with an untreatable rare genetic disorder called Trichothiodystrophy which leaves Jonty with a high risk of acquiring severe and potentially lifethreatening infections. That didn’t stop him from smashing his goal of completing the TRYathlon with his two siblings. Jonty’s family have made it their mission to ensure he has as full a life as possible by being involved in the community. It was nothing short of inspiring to witness Jonty cross the finish line with his beaming smile and heartwarming giggle. Mission complete!
It’s now time to get excited about the 2023/24 series. Entries open in September so make sure to keep an eye on tryathlon.co.nz and @tryathlon to stay up to date and get your children involved in this iconic Kiwi event. It’s a great, fun way to introduce the next gen to our fantastic sport.
Pressio has spent 20 years perfecting the equilibrium between power, performance, and comfort in their performance fabrics.
The revolutionary manufacturing advancements that have resulted are curated into their EcoPower CK compression technology.
Pressio claim to have set the industry standard through their wealth of experience, collaboration and countless hours working through multiple prototypes.
“Other brands have only managed to attain particular attributes. Off-theshelf fabrics are typically designed for swimwear or low-intensity sports. We truly understand each component and have started again, selecting every element,” Pressio say.
“We begin by identifying the perfect base yarn [which is] then formulated in combination with our hand-picked elastomeric yarn and our newly purchased 36-gauge circular knitting machines. We have cracked the combination, offering a fabric that can supply 25mmHg of power, breathability, comfort, wick moisture, and all at a weight ideal for mid-high intensity sport.”
Pressio’s high denier black Lycra allows maximum power with extra durability, ensuring longer-lasting power and performance.
The eco-dye dying process eliminates batch dying processes to ensure the power is not compromised and altered from production to production.
Greater Power High-powered fabric holds muscles in place, ensuring an optimal muscle firing position providing greater power output.
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Graduated compression increases blood flow. By increasing venous return to the heart, the oxygen transport system is improved. Improved circulation helps to reduce and clear the build-up of lactic acid in the muscles and blood.
When it comes to swim goggles, one size doesn’t fit all. Just ask triathlon’s GOAT, Jan Frodeno, who was so convinced by the tech behind THEMAGIC5, he bought into the company.
t all started when three Danish swimmers with complementary business skills talked about how they had never found a pair of goggles they liked, so set about developing something better.
The result is THEMAGIC5, the only custom-made goggles on the market. Using Optimal Fitting Technology, THEMAGIC5 does goggle customisation at scale and now provides 110,000+ customers worldwide with this revolutionary new technology.
THEMAGIC5 launched in 2017 via Kickstarter and quickly reached the top one percent of all businesses on the
crowdfunding platform. Confident that they were onto something special with the face scanning tech, the company appeared on season 13 of the hit reality show SharkTank in 2021 and secured a $1 million investments from two Sharks, Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec going 50-50 for a 3.25 percent stake each in the company.
In 2020/21 two of the world’s best athletes, triathlon’s GOAT, Jan Frodeno, and Matt Grevers, a six-time Olympic swim medalist for the U.S., joined the team of investors giving the business a huge popularity boost.
THEMAGIC5 is named after the five percent edge these goggles give swimmers.
When something as small as a droplet of water in your goggles can disrupt your focus, swimmers understand the huge impact such a tiny percentage difference can make.
Based on a scan in the free app that comes with purchase, the THEMAGIC5’s Optimal Fitting Technology software maps the contours of your face to guarantee a perfect fit. Once your order and face
scan reach the company, the robots go to work, manufacturing the gasket of the goggles to fit each customer perfectly. The optimal size of the nose piece is also attached to the goggles. These two elements control the final fit of the customised goggles. Each fit is unique, creating bespoke goggles with fewer distractions, no leakage and no suction marks for an overall better swimming experience.
Browse the range of goggles, from mirrored options to pure magic. Buy online, and you’ll receive an email directing you to our facescanning app.
Download the app and click “link scan to order”. Within 1-2 days your scan will be verified and sent off for production.
Depending on your location, the production team in either the USA or Denmark will use your scan to create your personalised goggles. You will receive your goggles in 1-2 weeks.
Take open-ear listening to new depths with SHOKZ’s OpenSwim Waterproof Headphones.
Engineered to withstand all elements, Shokz’s OpenSwim headphones are fully waterproof and submersible so you can swim, run, cycle, or train harder than ever before.
With an IP68 waterproof rating, OpenSwim can be submerged in water up to two metres deep
for up to two hours.
OpenSwim (formerly Xtrainerz) is engineered with Shokz’s signature open-ear design and 7th generation bone conduction technology to ensure budfree, comfortable listening all day, in or out of the water. Featuring four gigabytes of MP3 storage, the headphone enables athletes to train harder.
With eight hours of battery life and easy commands such as play, skip, pause, and back-a-track, you can enjoy your music lap by lap. Internal music storage allows for a library of up to 1,200 songs ready to play at the touch of a button. Supports MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, and FLAC for device-free listening.
“No wires, no devices, no limits” as the marketing spiel trumpets.
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wetsuits to giveaway
Men’s and Women’s each valued at US$779.95!
SUMARPO uses eco-friendly fabrics. Their suits are recyclable and biodegradable, and reduce carbon emissions during the manufacturing process.
Sumarpo has been making a meaningful difference in the triathlon world since its inception.Their products are developed with the concept of environmentally friendly and performance exploration. Each technology is a significant breakthrough in the triathlon field and brings us a bright and sustainable world. Sumarpo will continue to seek breakthroughs and drive sustainable development.
Garment Features:
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» Chest: 5mm
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» Upper Legs: 5mm
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Gravel biking, a rapidly growing segment of cycling, has captured the hearts of adventurers and cycling enthusiasts alike. It offers the perfect blend of excitement and exploration, allowing riders to venture off the beaten path and discover hidden gems in the great outdoors.
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New Zealand’s elite triathletes have Sunderland, Paris and Pontevedra to cap an already memorable 2023. Our mid-term report lays bare the golden WTCS progress already made.
After the giddy heights of Hamburg, it was back to the reality of everyday life – with all its recurring curveballs - for the elite Kiwi triathletes left campaigning up in Europe.
There was a noticeable spring in the step at training despite the universally sore bodies following Team NZL’s historic three medal haul at the World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championship. Frustratingly, the resumption of training was initially confined to swimming and running with none of the team’s bikes making the flight ’home’ from Hamburg to Barcelona, the latter a 90-minute drive to the Kiwi’s summer base in Banyoles.
The days long delay meant a serious disruption as the prep for the final push of
a thus far hugely successful 2023 season. Tucked in those bike bags were all manner of kit needed for every discipline of training, necessitating a spot of sportswear shopping and bike hiring to quickly get up to speed as best as possible, a not uncommon theme for those who lump
WTCS Sunderland
July 29: Men (14:00), Women (15:35)
July 30: Mixed Relay (13:15)
Paris Test Event
Aug 17: Women (08:00)
Aug 18: Men (08:00)
Aug 19: Para
Aug 20: Mixed Relay (08:00)
WTCS Pontevedra
Sept 23: Para (09:00/PTS4 11:10), U23 Men (14:20), Men (17:20)
Sept 24: U23 Women (14:00), Women (16:45)
their office around the globe in suitcases.
Next up was WTCS Hamburg on July 29-30, the opening sprint races a chance for freshly-minted World Sprint champion Hayden Wilde to leapfrog Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca atop the WTCS standings– especially with Alex Yee strangely opting to bypass his home race. Nicole van der Kaay and Tayler Reid were also keen to back up seasonbest 6th and 11th places in Hamburg while Ainsley Thorpe, Brea Roderick and Dylan McCullough had 21st, 41st and 45th placings as targets to improve upon.
Team NZL also had the chance to build on their brilliant silver medal in the Mixed Relay from Hamburg. The same squad of six – Wilde, Reid, McCullough, van der Kaay, Thorpe and Roderick – have been named for Sunderland and the Paris test event relay on August 20. While the automatic slot for the Paris Olympics was narrowly missed in Hamburg – hosts Germany sealed that with gold – NZL will be keen to kick on after improving their MR world ranking to third. Sunderland offers the chance for the NZ selectors to tinker with selections and perhaps even the order the quartet races; it was Wilde, Thorpe and Reid in Hamburg with van der Kaay the anchor.
Beyond the individual, para and relay dress-rehearsals in Paris from August 16-20, the first of which also carry WTCS points, the top level season climaxes at the September 23-24 World Triathlon Championship Finals in Pontevedra, a 1h 50m flight almost directly across the Spanish mainland from the east to the west coast.
Wilde’s wúnderbar result in Hamburg left him well positioned to atone for his near world title miss in Abu Dhabi last November and a flat tyre shocker to open
the new season back in the UAE capital in early March.
He’s now won Hamburg back to back – it was a WTCS sprint last year while a world championship super sprint in July – and has rattled off 1st, 2nd, and 1st places in Yokohama, Cagliari and Hamburg since his unfortunate 46th to start the campaign.
With Super League season V starting August 27 in London, the Kiwi No.1 and van der Kaay and Reid still have an awful lot of racing in 2023 but for Wilde, all roads lead to the Paris test event where the first Kiwi on the podium at the test event will earn an automatic no0mination to the NZOC for next summer’s Olympics.
Just as the Whakatane Falcon is keen for redemption in Pontevedra, Team NZL’s bronze medallist from the U23 relay in Hamburg - McCullough, Roderick, Saxon Morgan and Hannah Knighton – will all be eyeing the U23 World Standard Distance Championship in Spain with equal relish, as will Hamburg relay reserve Lachlan Haycock.
Otago Medical School Students and Tri NZ’s second power couple, Janus Staufenberg and Olivia Thornbury, meanwhile, earmarked themselves as exciting prospects for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and perhaps even the 2026 Commonwealth Games, if there is such a thing following Victoria’s shock withdrawal as host.
When they weren’t involved in crashes, the duo produced some eye-catching results in Europe including a gold for Staufenberg and bronze for Thornbury at European Premier Cup Holten in the Netherlands.
The win helped Staufenberg get a start off the waitlist in Hamburg and he didn’t disappoint, doggedly reaching the top-30
shootout alongside Wilde and Reid via the a gritty repecharge performance. The Wanaka 24-year-old eventually finished his WTCS debut 27th while Thornbury’s 44th, also on in her maiden WTCS race, gives the Invercargill 25-year-old a benchmark for her inevitable return to the big time, albeit fitted around medical studies and placement next year as will be the case for Staufenberg.
Also now back in New Zealand are juniors Sophie Spencer, Benjamin Airey and Finnley Oliver who were 25th, 23rd and 46th respectively in the U19 World Sprint Championships in Hamburg.
Together, they kick-started Team NZL’s week of weeks in Hamburg. The year, hopefully with the nine missing bikes and physio table reunited quickly with their tired but reinvigorated owners, continues apace.
Vasco Vilaca (POR)
Hayden Wilde (NZL)
Matthew Hauser (AUS)
Alex Yee (GBR)
Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR)
Dorian Coninx (FRA)
Leo Bergere (FRA)
Csongor Lehmann (HUN)
Adrien Brifford (SUI)
Marten Van Riel (BEL)
Tayler Reid
Dylan McCullough
Trent Thorpe
Saxon Morgan
Austin Carter
Lachlan Haycock
Ivan Abele
Janus Staufenberg
Kyle Smith
Henry McMecking
Alex Brackenbury
Luke Scott
Beth Potter (GBR)
Taylor Spivey (USA)
Summer Rappaport (USA)
Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)
Jeanne Lehair (LUX)
Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA)
Sophie Coldwell (GBR)
Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX)
Emma Lombardi (FRA)
Lisa Tertsch (GER)
Nicole Van Der Kaay
Ainsley Thorpe
Brea Roderick
Hannah Knighton
Sarah McClure
Olivia Cummings
Olivia Thornbury
Hayden Wilde’s world title in Hamburg was made even sweeter by the respect that permeates at the sport’s top table.
It’s epic to watch on the racetrack, a case study in international sporting relations off it and the best part of triathlon’s great new rivalry is that we are only getting started in 2023.
Alex Yee’s genuine admiration in the aftermath of Hayden Wilde’s World Triathlon Sprint Championship triumph added a cherry on top of the Kiwi’s magic Hamburg moment.
The British whippet was among those caught spinning when Wilde surged late in the bike leg of the final 10-man shootout. Combined with an impossibly fast and flawless T2, Wilde had made his winning break in the final stage of the eliminator before many of the heavy-hitters behind had unclipped their helmets and slipped into their running shoes.
“He did a really good job in those last few corners. He put a bit of a surge in, had
two or three seconds in transition and then he was gone,” Yee said of Wilde.
“In this kind of racing those small margins are the things that win or lose you a race so kudos to him, it was really impressive.”
As always with great sporting rivalries, Yee attempted to wrestle back the psychological advantage ahead of their next mouth-watering meeting at the Paris Test event, and thereafter the WTCS decider in Pontevedra.
“I’m very much preparing for Olympic distance at the moment, so to come down to this short distance was a bit of a madness but I really enjoyed it,” Yee said. “And this is a good format, I think it’s here to stay.
“Once you get to that last 10, just racing against your mates, it’s really enjoyable, Kristian doing his madness on the bike and my legs were in tatters, but it’s great racing. It’s crazy, carnage but I really enjoy it.”
Wilde has WTCS Sunderland to try to overtake Vasco Vilaca atop the World Championship standings, a feat that will be slightly eaiser with Yee bypassing his home race (a sprint noteably), along with dangerous Aussie Matt Hauser too.
Count on the Kiwi’s big engine helping him make the step up to the Olympic (standard distance) too, not to mention the lure of rubber-stamping his inevitable
Paris Games nomination to the NZOC if he can be the first Kiwi on the podium at the test event.
Be sure too that the Wilde will want to keep the mental edge on Yee when they both drop down to the short, shape racing of Super League season V which begins in London on August 27.
But that, in Hamburg at least, was for
later. In the moment, Wilde was caught up in the agony and ecstasy of a win right up there with his Tokyo bronze, Birmingham silver and last season’s Super League Triathlon crown.
“You kind of keep forgetting it’s World Champs eh, you are just so focused on the job at hand,” Wilde said.
Add the bonus of beating Yee to your
world crown then, Hayden.
“Yeah, it’s really nice but he’s a classy athlete, even the other guys, Matt [Hauser] has been on amazing form, Vasco was there as well, and Kristian the Olympic champ was there, so to get a result on any of those guys is always a good day.
“Yeah, it’s nice to get Alex but I’ve got to look at the rest of the competition as well.
It’s an amazing line-up and even to make the top-10 is good.”
Not half as good as the Wilde v Yee show which gets more exciting with every chapter. With as many as six more meetings in 2023, this year could be a blockbuster before we even get to next summer’s Paris Olympic Games.
1. New Plymouth, NZL Mar. 26 (Sprint)
Men: 1. Wilde; 2. Reid; 4. McCullough; 10. Staufenberg; 25. Morgan; 30. T Thorpe; 34. Parry; 42. Carter; 47. Abele; 49. Haycock; DNF. Corbett.
Women: 1. Van der Kaay; 2. A. Thorpe; 9. Thornbury; 11. Roderick; 32. Knighton; 36. Cummings; 43. Howell; 44. Lindsay; 45. Goodisson; 47. Keightley; 50 Llewellyn
2. Huatulco, MEX June 17-18 (Sprint)
Men: 36. Smith
3. Tiszaujvaros, HUN July 8-9 (Sprint)
Men: 15. T. Thorpe; 19. Staufenberg
Kiwi No.1 Nicole van der Kaay hopes her season best result in Hamburg is a catalyst for a year that ends as well as it started.
When your male counterpart wins the world title 35 minutes earlier, it’s inevitable your result, no matter how good, is going to get lost in the golden furore.
Nicole van der Kaay’s 6th at the World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championship, backed up by taking responsibility for the anchor leg a day later as Team NZL won silver, would normally have been headline news save for Hayden Wilde’s heroics in Hamburg.
Rest assured it was a great result, especially when taken in context of 27th and 42nd placings in her two previous WTCS starts of 2023 in Yokohama and Montreal.
The Kiwi No.1 jumped 11 spots to 16th in the WTCS standings and two places to 22 in the World Triathlon Rankings. Even
more significant was the confidence boost the Taupo 27-year-old drew from her gritty efforts in the gruelling super sprint eliminator. Another top 8 at WTCS level and her ticket to the Paris Olympics will be punched, not that seems in doubt.
“I’m very happy to get a top 10, to get the final [stage of three after the previous day’s qualifiers]. That first round [after a poor swim] I was nearly out so to keep on keeping on, I’m really proud of that. And yeah, to get a top 6, I have nothing left so proud of my race,” van der kaay told TQ.
After her perfect five-for-five Oceania campaign, the result seemed only a matter of time and could easily have come in Canada in the previous round but for a spectacular bike crash in Montreal.
“I’d love to see what I could do on a fresh day and today was one of those days so I’m really happy with that. To get one on the WTCS circuit, really happy and I hope I can keep on doing that.”
How tough was the eliminator format?
“It brutal, eh. You see the times and it’s only short but you’re going max for full lactate, you have to round that up, like I think I’ve done that four times now. It’s just hard.”
Women: 54. Thornbury
4. Yeongdo, KOR Aug 5-6 (Sprint)
5. Weihai, CHN Aug 26-27 (Standard)
6. Valencia, ESP Sept. 2 (Standard)
7. Karlovy Vary, CZE Sept. 10 (Standard)
8. Tangier, MAR Oct. 1 (Sprint)
9. Rome, ITA Oct. 7 (Sprint)
10. Chengdu CHN Oct. 14 (Standard)
11. Brasilia, Brazil Oct.15 (Standard)
12. Tongyeong, KOR Oct. 21 (Sprint)
13. Miyazaki, JPN Oct. 28 (Standard)
14. Vina del Mar, CHI Nov. 11-12 (Sprint)
15. Montevideo, URU Nov. 18-19 (Standard)
The party was Wilde in Hamburg and it wasn’t just the Kiwi No.1 winning medals.
Two thirds of the perfect boxed set of medals and critical momentum heading to Paris. That’s what New Zealand’s elite and U23 relay teams contributed to and took away from a magical World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championship for Team NZL.
The U23 quartet of Dylan McCullough, Brea Roderick, Saxon Morgan and Hannah Knighton got the ball rolling with bronze, hours before Hayden Wilde captured gold in the individual men’s super sprint. A day later Wilde, Ainsley Thorpe, Tayler Reid and Nicole van der Kaay ensured a medal of every colour in Hamburg with silver in the elite relay.
It was the perfect way to welcome Tri NZ’s new Mixed Relay partner, Radix Nutrition, to the party, a nod too to Suzuki for their continued support.
Germany may have snared the automatic Olympic qualification slot on offer in the elite relay but New Zealand put the rest of the world on notice that they’ll be right in the mix for a medal in Paris.
Olympic hosts France opted not to race in
Hamburg and GBR, who have also already qualified for Paris, started the race without kingpin Alex Yee.
Still, silver was no cinch and no less sweet for NZL’s awesome foursome, a first relay medal since the same quartet clinched gold at Edmonton in 2019.
“I think we’ve been racing with each other since like 2018 so we know each other inside and out and yeah, give us another year under our belt and I think we’ll be definitely in the running for a medal,” Team NZL talisman Wilde told TQ.
“Yeah, 100 percent, it’s a good team.”
There are two more relay opportunities this year in Sunderland and critically at the Paris Olympic Test event for the team to get better.
They’d go from good to great with a medal at next summer’s Olympics in Paris. It won’t be easy but Hamburg illustrated its certainly not improbable either.
Hayden Wilde (NZL)
Alex Yee (GBR)
Léo Bergere (FRA)
Tayler Reid
Dylan McCullough
Trent Thorpe
Janus Staufenberg
Saxon Morgan
Austin Carter
Lachlan Haycock
Ivan Abele
Kyle Smith
Henry McMecking
Alex Brackenbury
Luke Scott
Sam Parry
James Corbett
Beth Potter (GBR)
Taylor Spivey (USA)
Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)
Ainsley Thorpe
Nicole van der Kaay
Eva Goodisson
Brea Roderick
Olivia Thornbury
Hannah Knighton
Sarah Mcclure
Olivia Cummings
Andrea Hansen Hannah Howell
WT Mixed Relay Olympic Qualification Rankings
Through some serious adversity, Hannah Knighton has remembered why she fell in love with triathlon in the first place. The tough journey has the Tri NZ HP athlete back trending nicely towards Los Angeles 2028 and longer distance races beyond.
As a kid, I played almost every sport under the sun including netball, hockey, tennis and swimming. I also learnt Jazz Ballet for eight years. I loved being busy and going from one activity to the next each day after school. Being so busy and taking part in so many sports was a good outlet for my competitive nature.
» » »
My older sister Sarah participated in the Weet-Bix TRYathlons growing up, so I was very excited when I was finally old enough to also take part. I remember being so nervous because I wanted to win my age group so badly, so I guess nothing much has changed. I don’t think I took my Weet-Bix shirt off for about a week after the race.
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Sarah is definitely my hero. She is the hardest worker I know, she’s super smart, she stands up for herself and she has the courage to do things that scare her.
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I think I represented Berkley Intermediate in 12 or 13 different sports at interschool competitions including netball, volleyball, swimming, cross country, tennis, badminton, squash, table tennis, athletics and touch.
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Eventually, I had to cut back on the number of sports I was involved with. I think Ange (mum) was a bit sad when I said I wanted to give up tennis so that I could swim more and take up cycling. Sarah and I were her real life ‘Barbie dolls’ and she loved being a ‘tennis mum’ and dressing us in the latest tennis gear that we’d order from the US. I might not have always been the best player on the court, but I always had the nicest outfit. Tri suits are not quite so trendy.
HANNAH KNIGHTON
Age 23
From Cambridge Lives Cambridge / Papamoa
RANKINGS
World 142 Olympic 129 Oceania 15 BEST
WTCS Yet to race World Cup 32nd, New Plymouth, 2023 Did you know?
Knighton has won U23 Relay gold (2019 in Lausanne) and silver (2023 in Hamburg). She was 4th in the individual Junior race in Lausanne.
HANNAH’S BEATS
YOU’LL FIND IN MY TRAINING PLAYLIST
Thunder
Imagine Dragons
Message in a bottle
Taylor Swift
On top of the world
Imagine Dragons
Young dumb and broke
Khalid
All too well
Taylor Swift
Don’t care
Ed Sheeran
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Joining the cycling squad at Waikato Dio is one of best decisions I’ve ever made. Dio had an awesome history in cycling and we had some great coaches, especially Dave and Julie Spring ex CycleTime. The Dio cycling team had a family atmosphere which made the experience so memorable. Ange was quick to hop on board and become a cycling and triathlon mum and was known as the go to person for French braiding our hair.
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Once I was hooked on cycling, I knew triathlon was the sport for me. Part way through my first year at Dio, I linked up with Chris Willett. Gary (dad) would drive me over to Tauranga every Saturday for group training sessions with the Tauranga junior squad. I’m still coached by Chris today.
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I loved the opportunity to compete in four different sports at a high level once I added triathlon to swimming, cycling and cross country, constantly travelling around the country to different events. I also had a great team around me at Dio, which made training and competing so much fun. Emily Irvine and Katie White were also keen triathletes and we always competed in team races together. There was even mini bus at Dio that had a photo of us cycling printed on it. We’ll be lifelong friends because of shared love of sport at Dio.
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I was really happy with how Oceania Cup Wanaka (5th) played out in Feb. Going into the race I knew I
hadn’t done the run work to be with the front girls but the week before the race I had pushed some good numbers at the Elite Road TT Cycling Nationals and I knew I was swimming well, so I wanted to attack the race and be a contender, rather than a bystander. To be in a breakaway with Emma Jeffcoat and Brea Roderick and have a significant time gap over the rest of the field was really pleasing
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To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with the rest of my Australasian season. I felt like I had been executing some really good training sessions but it wasn’t translating into my races. I was studying fulltime to complete my masters and also tutoring an undergraduate Stats paper, so I was probably a bit over committed and not in the right headspace. I know I have to be on the top of my game if I’m going to execute a race as well as I want to. At the end of the day, that’s sport though. Disappointment makes the highs seem so much better.
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I went back to the drawing board after New Plymouth [32nd] and finally got into a more sustainable routine. I had a really productive training block which set me up well for Port Douglas [8th overall, 3rd U23].
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As an athlete you always need to have a plan B and having a good education sets you up for life after sport. So in 2021, I was studying full time for
a BSc (double major in Data Analytics and Human Performance Science). I was also doing some remote tutoring for the Statistics Department at Uni [Waikato] and training full time, while away with the Olympic team on Gold Coast as Ainsley Thorpe’s training partner. In hindsight, I was probably overcommitted and so stressed that an injury was bound to happen. » » »
It came a few months after I got back from Australia [in 2021] and was living in Tauranga, as Cambridge was in lockdown. I had a few weeks where I wasn’t recovering well because of the extra stress I was under, which I didn’t really acknowledge at the time. I noticed my hip was tight when I was running one day and it didn’t improve after a month of daily physio and rehab, so eventually I was referred for an MRI. The news was pretty much my worst nightmare and not what I wanted to hear two days before Christmas. A stress fracture and a stress reaction in my pelvis. » » »
I was on crutches for a couple of weeks and could only really open water swim for short amounts of time. It was a pretty tough few weeks. Progress was slow and I felt like the timeline kept shifting. Eventually, at the end of January [ 2022 ] I was allowed back on my bike, even if I was only allowed to spin at less than 100 watts. At least I could spin in my garage at the hottest part of the day so I would still feel like I was working hard. » » »
It was also pretty tough mentally, as the three NZ races in February and March [2022] were to be used to decide funding, so in my head I had to be race ready for them, so that was another real blow when I couldn’t complete any of the races and show how hard I had worked over the Covid period. » » »
I had planned to take a year off study after completing my undergrad degree, however while I was injured, I was offered the opportunity to do the statistical analysis for a PhD candidate’s thesis. This led me to start my Masters sooner than I had intended. But I think this helped get me mentally through the injury as it gave me something else to do and think about. » » »
I’m planning to complete my Masters, through the University of Waikato, by the start of July. My thesis is based on the biomechanics and perceived comfort of performance carbon plated racing shoes. What could be better than getting to write a thesis focusing on your three favourite things: sport, shoes and numbers!
“It’s important for athletes to know there is more to life than sport. Athletes need to know that it’s okay to not be okay and that its okay to ask for help.”
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In the long term, I’d love to use my data analytic skills to work for some kind of sports company like Nike or Asics that is developing shoes that enhance performance or reduce injuries, or for a company using physiology data in sport such as Wild AI, Whoop or Oura.
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Eventually my hip started to feel better and I could return to running. It did make planning last year’s European campaign a little tricky, in fact my first continuous 5km run was actually at my first race at European Cup Carole in Italy [ 31st last May]. I was so happy to be back training properly and racing after a very long six months I couldn’t hide my smile while I ran. I kept that momentum going over the European campaign and just focused on being consistent and not getting caught up in what the other girls were doing. I was just happy to be making good progress while I was away.
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I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t ride a bike, but I know I still need to work on my bike handling skills. I can push good power but my current focus is on developing the crit style riding skills required for World Triathlon racing. This includes mountain bike riding when I’m home in NZ and practising on the crit circuit we use in Papamoa.
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I was first New Zealander out of the water at World Cup Bergen [eventually finishing 41st] last August. I came out in the front pack on the heels of some top WTCS swimmers. The water was so cold that it really hurt to breathe. I think I was so cold when I got on the bike, I momentarily panicked and lost focus for a few seconds and by then I’d lost touch with the lead group. It was definitely one of those moments that you learn from. The following week in Alhandra [9th], I stayed at the front of the pack and felt more in control.
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World Cup Bergen was an insane race. There was a huge crowd and the atmosphere was epic. The depth of the field is so great that the difference between 10th and 40th can be next to nothing. I’m super keen to give the next level of racing a good go once I’ve proven myself at the lower levels again. I’ve previously podiumed at Conti cups in Canada in 2019, Kelowna [ 1st ] and Magog [ 2nd ] and on the Gold Coast [ 3rd ] in 2018. I don’t want to race just to make up the numbers, I want to know I’ve earned my spot there and can mix it with the top girls.
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In Banyoles, we have specific brick sessions on Saturdays where we simulate race experience
with crit style efforts. I’ve been trying to build my confidence in those sessions and work on my acceleration. In the race specific open water sessions at Banyoles, I try to stay on the guy’s feet for as long as I can. At the top level, the girls are swimming nearly as fast as the guys, so it’s a good benchmark of where I’m at.
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Finishing third behind Ashleigh Gentle and Amelia Watkinson at the Noosa Triathlon in November was an epic experience for me and exactly what I needed. I was starting to get very caught up in what races I needed to do for points and funding, rather than just focusing on what was going to make me a better athlete.
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Noosa was the first race in a long time, probably since 2019, where I felt really nervous, like on the brink of tears a week out from the race. But that excited me because it meant I actually cared about the race, and I knew I was ready. I couldn’t quite believe it when I had such a good lead out of the water and was still in the lead going up Noosa Hill on the bike, I was just having so much fun. I bought a second-hand TT bike and Chris [Willett] swapped over the componentry from my old bike that Gary uses. Sorry Gaz!
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I love racing and seeing how hard I can push myself, so I am keen to give more of this non drafting style of racing a go in the future. Noosa helped me find the love of racing again and finally feel like I was racing for myself, not just chasing points or selection.
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I joined Tauranga Triathlon Club when I joined the junior squad coached by Chris Willett. My grandparents, Ru and Grae, live in Papamoa, so it was pretty handy to go over and stay with them. Eventually, I ended up spending most of the school holidays staying with them so that I could be in Papamoa to train with Chris. Even now when I’m in NZ, I stay with them for half the week to train in Papamoa.
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I think it’s important for HP athletes to stay connected with grassroots sport and be a role model for future athletes. Tri Tauranga is a great club and I love being part of that community.
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The weather in Banyoles [Tri NZ’s European summer base] is hot and the roads and lake are perfect for training. Ainsley Thorpe, Eva Goodisson, Brea Roderick and I rent a house in Banyoles. This is the third year we’ve rented the same house and we have a pretty good routine. We know how each other
operates and know each other well enough to be able to tell when someone needs some space or is tired.
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I’d be lying to say that there are no low points but I just try to keep perspective and appreciate how lucky I am. How many other 23-year-olds can say they are travelling around Europe doing what they love and living out their childhood dream?
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Coming 5th at my first World Juniors in Rotterdam in 2017 was an amazing feeling that I will never forget or take for granted. The field was extremely strong and included Taylor Knibb, Kate Waugh and a number of other girls now racing on the WTCS circuit. In the lead up to the Worlds, at the training camp in Banyoles, I unintentionally lost a significant amount of weight. While there, my run volume was doubled, the weather was super-hot and I simply didn’t eat enough to fuel the increase in training load.
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I sat my level 3 NCEA mock exams the day after returning from Europe and at the end of that week, I captained the Dio Senior girls cycling team at NZSS nationals to win the team trial. It was a super stressful last term at school. I was Head of Sport and was heavily involved in organising the Dio Sports awards dinner and was also studying for NCEA exams. The combination of weight loss and stress meant that I developed REDs [Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport].
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At World’s in 2018 I was probably at my lowest. Although I finished 11th on the Gold Coast, I realised I needed to make a change. It was at that point with the help of Chris, Dr. Stacy Sims [leading global expert on female physiology and training] and Dom Vittise, my Sports Psychologist, I was able to turn the corner.
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After Worlds, I took a complete break from running for three-four months so that my body could fully recover. Recovering from REDs was one of the hardest things I’ve done. It was not a fun journey but I’m sure I’m stronger for having gone through it.
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It’s good to see that information about REDs is now more widely available. There is a lot more talk in the HP space about fuelling for training and the importance of maintaining a regular menstrual cycle.
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It’s important for athletes to know there is more to life than sport. Athletes need to know that it’s okay to not be okay and that its okay to ask for help. The best advice I can give to someone suffering from REDs is to surround yourself with a team of people you can
trust and who have your best interests at heart.
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In 2021, prior to the Olympics, I was on the Gold Coast as Ainsley’s training partner. I was juggling full time study along with training. While the other girls would nap during recovery time, I was busy working on university assignments. I was probably over committed and pretty stressed. I remember being on a Facetime call with my sister and just breaking down into tears because I was so exhausted. I put it down to end of semester exam stress but I should have known better.
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I then got stuck in Cairns when the Covid bubble popped the day before we were due to fly home. I arranged to get back to Brisbane to stay with family friends, although Tri NZ subsequently offered us to let us stay in Cairns longer and continue training with the Olympic team. But by this stage, I was exhausted and for the first time in my life I didn’t want to train. While in Brisbane waiting to get back to NZ, I got the results of my blood tests. I had depleted iron stores, so this explained why I had felt so exhausted.
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I got an iron infusion two days after being back in NZ and I quickly came back to life. I was still pretty stressed, as I completed my last semester of undergrad study, but excited to train again. Unfortunately, this was when I was diagnosed with my stress fracture.
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Right now, I’m in a good place. The end is in sight with my Masters degree and I’m looking forward to
having a break from study to just focus on training and racing. I haven’t had a break for longer than two weeks since starting Uni in 2018. It’s good to know that I have the foundations of a solid plan B in place and I can now focus on being a full time athlete.
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The Commonwealth Games in 2026 is definitely a goal but there is a strong cohort of girls coming through and nothing is guaranteed in sport.
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I’m also keen to dip my toe into some more non drafting middle distance races. We’re lucky that there are a variety of different types of high level racing available apart from just focusing on the Olympics, including Super League and PTO events.
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I don’t have a lot of time for other interests but I’m a super keen baker… or is that procrastibaker… when you choose to bake rather than start your next assignment! During Covid, I baked a lot of sourdough and I also became proficient at making croissants. I also try to make sure I find time to catch up with friends, outside of the HP triathlon bubble, for coffee.
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I’m superstitious. I always prefer to finish a swim set on pretty number, one that finishes with 000’s. I also learnt the piano for a number of years at school. One day when I have more time, I’d like to have time to play again.
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The best piece of advice I’ve received? Diamonds are made under pressure
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Despite the setbacks I have had over the years, I’m enormously grateful for the opportunities triathlon has given me and the people I have met along the way. I’d like to say a huge thank you to Chris Willet, my coach, Teamline and Beyond Physio for supporting me on my journey. I really value their help and encouragement.
“I’d be lying to say that there are no low points but I just try to keep perspective and appreciate how lucky I am. How many other 23-year-olds can say they are travelling around Europe doing what they love and living out their childhood dream?”
The ante keeps getting upped but all Braden Currie can do is control the controllable. In Cairns, the Kiwi No.1 did just that, an impressive go-towhoa Asia Pacific Championship triumph a swift and timely confidence shot as the 2023 VINFAST Ironman Worlds loom.
With PB 3.8km swim and 42.2km run splits of 45:09 and 2:37:45 respectively, Currie claimed not only his third Ironman Cairns win but also the course record. The Wanaka 37-year-old’s 7:50:11 was a whooping 9min 50sec clear of runner-up Steve McKenna and eclipsed the previous Cairns record of 7:52:54 by Max Neumann, set when the Australian star edged Currie the previous year.
Neumann hinted in commentary that he may return in 2024, a prospect Currie welcomed. “I came in pretty under-prepared last year so it’s good to get back another win and yeah, go toe-to-toe with Maxy and let’s hope next year we get to start on the start line together. Yeah, it will be an exciting race, I can tell you that.”
Before then, there’s the September 10
worlds in Nice, France to tick off, especially personal for Currie after last year’s Kona DNF. Cairns will give him confidence he can at least repeat his 2021 Ironman World Championship bronze medal from Utah, even if Magnus Ditlev’s 7:24:40 win at Challenge Roth a week later raised the bar higher. Roth is renowned as a fast course
but by knocking a staggering 11 minutes off Jan Frodeno’s previous record, Ditlev marked himself as the man to beat in Nice. As Sebastian Kienle said after his farewell race at Roth, Ditlev’s effort was like “the first landing on the moon in our sport, or breaking supersonic sound or something like that.” Roll on Nice.
Astellar PTO U.S. Open field will give Braden Currie a marker of his World Ironman Championship prospects in Milwaukee on August 5 (NZT).
Currie will make his first PTO appearance since last August’s Collins Cup alongside the likes of Challenge Roth recordsmasher Magnus Ditlev, Kristian Blummenfelt, Jan Frodeno, Sam Long, Lionel Sanders, Alistair Brownlee and Daniel Backkergard.
Blummenfelt is set to back up at the inaugural Asian Open in Singapore on August 20, just two days after racing the Olympic Test event…in Paris. Gustav Iden, Sam Laidlow and PTO European Open
winner Max Neumann will add firepower in Singapore. Rebecca Clarke, meanwhile, has starts in both the Milwaukee and Singapore fields. The Aucklander led the 21st Ironman Frankfurt for a time before fading to 8th in the European Championship and will look forward to the shorter 100km PTO races. The U.S. Open (August 6 NZT for the women) includes Ashleigh Gentle, Chelsea Sodaro and Taylor Knibb while European Open champion Anne Haug and British fish Lucy Charles-Barclay add depth for Singapore. Catch the action on PTO’s Youtube channel, PTOHub, with the U.S. Open at 0900 NZT Aug 5-6, and Singapore from 1900 Aug. 20 NZT.
DATEV Challenge Roth is a bucket lister for many Kiwi triathletes and some do their bow in Bavaria better than others. In Dr. Dan Plew’s case, it was way better than most.
There are age groupers and then there are age groupers like Dr. Dan Plews. The Aucklander is best known as the coach of reigning Ironman World champion Chelsea Sodaro but is a thoroughbred athlete in his own right, evidenced by his 8:18:01 debut at DATEV Challenge Roth in late June.
It was good enough for gold in his age group (40-44) and 24th overall and came after he won Ironman NZ last December in 8:50:13 off the back of just eight weeks training.
“Challenge Roth has always been a massive bucket list race for me, growing up watching Lothar Ledar and
others, epic run battles along the canal. Back then it was known as Ironman Europe, but WOW what a race experience Challenge Roth is now,” Plews said after splits of 53:02 for the swim, 4:31:00 for the 180km bike and 2:50:25 for the marathon.
“… a personal best time for me, which I have to be super happy with considering I wasn’t going to be making the start line 9 days ago. The level of racing in both age group and professional was off the charts impressive … great to be part of such an iconic day. Well done to everyone out there who crushed it!”
Among other Kiwis to excel in
DateV Challenge Roth –2023 Kiwis Roll of Honour
Bavaria were OxMan and Canterbury Classic Race Director John Newsom, fellow Canterbury Triathlon Club member Sarah Jane Blair who claimed bronze in the 60-64 age group, and Dave Dawn who clocked 13:43:46. At age 70.
The true beauty of Roth, apart from the history and the course, are the crowds who line the race track and the finishing chute amphitheatre, making an after dark finish especially memorable.
He’s one of the great protagonists of Kiwi triathlon and needed every ounce of that considerable character to conquer the race to rule them all. Billy Bowman relives his epic, emotional and ultimately record breaking Kiwiman Xtreme Triathlon victory.
Having averaged 270 watts for the first two hours, I’m thinking, disc wheel, disc wheel placebo, TT helmet, must be averaging 35km/ hr + easy. I check my watch…21km/ hr. Oh bugger. It’s a tough course, no joke. This really is going to be a long day.
Finally pulled up alongside Conrad who was almost at a standstill in the headwind out on the plains. Respectfully offered some wheel sucking action and wheel he graciously sucked. From there on out, each consecutive climb up Taranaki took a larger chunk out of my soul and another 50 watts out of my legs, rolling up to the final climb, 10km at 10 percent.
The brainchild of Thor Hesselberg, Kiwiman Xtreme is the toughest triathlon New Zealand has to offer, a masochistic perversion of a full distance race conceived with maximum suffering in mind.
Comprising a 3.8km swim in the dark, a 195km bike ride with 3100m of elevation around Mt Taranaki and a gruelling 42km run from New Plymouth back up to Taranaki Maunga again, Kiwiman finishes in an Norseman XTRI-Esque high/ low course cut off format with black shirts only awarded to those who finish the country’s only extreme, full distance triathlon. It’s an event designed to make clinical Ironman athletes shake at the knees, so best be prepared to embrace the adversity.
Kicking off in Lake Rotomanu at 5am, support crews were up at 3am, preparing to fuel and navigate their athletes through a very long day. Pitch black, the swim brief comprised an ominous, “swim towards the red light, when you get
there, turn right, swim towards the next one”. Three laps, calling out race numbers each time we passed the start, supporters suspensefully watched on as our glowing tow floats disappeared and reappeared in and out of sight.
Out of the water first, I screamed up to T1 at the car. Under torch light, my support crew of Laura Quilter, Alex Lowen, Werner Milan and Emily Stephens stripped me down, dried me off and wrapped me up in layer after layer of clothes.
Conrad Smith and his relay team managed to get the jump through transition. Still dark and only a couple of degrees C, I set off after the All Black and his team on the bike, leaving the crew to catch up.
Open roads and no race marshals left the responsibility of navigating up to the competency of the athlete. In other words, I was lost within the three minutes. Having been set right again by my support crew and with a classic “let’s get it on”, we pressed on up the first climb into a brutal southerly. Day began to break and boy was it breath taking, out over the
By this point I was broken, compartmentalising the remaining work to be done: finish this hill, hot cross bun, 10 more km on the bike, hot cross bun… etc trying to ignore the mammoth run to come. It’s not a good sign when you have to get off the bike half way up a climb and it’s an even worse sign when the legs give out in the process. Back
on, a few more flying piddles down the burrowed calf sleeves, 10km enjoying the only tailwind of the day at 50km/hr and it was almost time to strip off a layer.
With 195km ticked off, it’s into T2 for precision hydration: some Raro and salt prepped in the back of the cab, plus a six pack of hot cross buns. We set off again with a 10 minute lead which is duly lost within the first
kilometre. We did a few shuttle runs along the beach and waited to follow the chase pack. Cheers Ben. For some profound reason my legs were suddenly firing and four minute kms saw us roar through the first 20-odd kms, so much so that I accidentally leap frogged ahead of my support crew through a trail section whilst they were out saving another athlete. Said athlete was operating on pure mongrel and 200ml of aqua, as a result of a key in car, support crew
locked out of car incident. Another support crew fuelled me through a missing checkpoint and 10kms up the road, sucking moisture from my own tears, my crew eventually caught up and brought energy, smiles, food, hydration and the will to live. Taking turns in relay, they helped me shuffle through waves of feeling viscerally ill and hauling ass, nursing me to the foot of the final ascent.
Passing the med check with
All but 10km of the 195km on the bike were into soul destroying head winds
“…10kms up the road, sucking moisture from my own tears, my crew eventually caught up and brought energy, smiles, food, hydration and the will to live.” – Billy Bowman
flying colours – “how do you feel?”…“@#$%&!” – all that stood between us and the finish was a mountain. I downed the most glorious chicken soup of my life, the only food I’d been able to digest for hours, grabbed my poles and started for it with Werner, my compulsory safety support. Whilst collecting myself in T3, Conrad and his teammates Geoff and Ross got the jump on us again. Hell bent, we charged on up that thing as if my body had forgotten the previous 11hrs of suffering. The final precipice, five kms, 700m of vert, demanding every last shred of will. Step by step we finally caught sight of the finish line and the boys ahead, which lit a fire, a determination to bury it through to the end, doing it all justice. That’s when we were subject to something special, the most humbling display of sportsmanship I’ve ever been bestowed, Conrad, Geoff and Ross, stopped just shy of the finish and turned to clap me across the line. I can’t describe how emotive that scene was, sharing and acknowledging the gravity of what we’d just accomplished in such a dramatic, moving setting.
Having cracked the course record in 12:24:29, there was cause for celebration but the day wasn’t over. We still had to climb back down off the mountain, 5km of stairs, as if the punishment wasn’t enough. On brand, we returned by torch light. One race to rule them all, one race to find them, one race to break them all, in the darkness you’ll find them.
ABOVE: Nearing the finish
OPPOSITE PAGE: Former ABs centre Conrad Smith (far right) celebrates victory in the Teams category after a lovely display of sportsmanship moments earlier
“This race requires grit, this race requires you to get comfortable in the uncomfortable, it turns adversity into your jester, and chicken soup into your Michelin Star.” – Billy Bowman
Kiwiman requires grit, the ability to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. It turns adversity into your jester, and chicken soup into your Michelin Star. If you like clinical racing, Kiwiman isn’t for you, and, because of that, it fosters
sportsmanship and comradery like no other. It was epic sharing the experience with my crew. As a team.
“Being part of the atmosphere, jostling with other support crew from one aid station to the next
was exciting,” Alex said. Laura? “For such an individual sport, the comradery between athletes and supporters was something special.”
It surely was.
Dylan McCullough’s eye-catching ride at WTCS Montreal, when he almost singledhandedly towed the chasing peloton across to the leading bunch, underscored his pedal power. The Cambridge-based 22-year-old was rewarded with a career-best 14th place in Canada but what wasn’t so obvious in June was his smooth cornering. McCullough is one of the most technically adept cyclists in the Tri NZ HP set-up and shares here tips to help you shave valuable seconds off your sprint and standard distance bike splits.
Understanding the DNA of RNA – Radix Nutrition Architecture – convinced Tri NZ to partner with the pioneering Hamilton company. Here’s why triathletes at the weekend warrior level, indeed everyone, should be just as excited about the new, scientifically-formulated relationship.
In a fast-paced world where convenience often trumps nutritional value, the search for healthy, easily accessible meals can be challenging. Enter Radix Nutrition, the revolutionary New Zealand company that has just become an Official Nutrition partner of Tri NZ and the country’s Mixed Relay team through to the Paris Olympics and beyond.
Mike Rudling’s passion for using nutrition to optimise human health and performance led him to found Radix in 2013. A decade on, the company provides ready-to-eat meals and breakfasts, protein powders and recovery smoothie powders that deliver the most nutritionally complete meals and effective protein available anywhere. Critically for busy athletes, those competing at the elite level fulltime or mixing their
passion with a fulltime job and family life, Radix’s game-changing solutions are also available at any time, ready on the go. Radix’s journey began with Rudling’s keen interest in the science of nutrition and human metabolism. As an ex-athlete, he experienced first-hand how challenging it can be to achieve the optimal diet for supporting peak performance. From the outset, Radix has aimed to fundamentally elevate metabolic health and performance through applied nutrition, a vision that has since evolved into a market-leading reality today.
Radix is fundamentally a nutrition technology company. Radix Nutrition Architecture (RNA) embodies the company’s unique approach to nutritional design. This design approach serves as a
blueprint for achieving the optimal dietary nutritional profile, selecting the highest quality ingredients and delivering ultimate convenience. All products are glutenfree and made from 100 percent natural ingredients, ensuring meals are nutrientrich, delicious, and cater to varied dietary needs.
“The disparity between the knowledge of essential nutrients and the average intakes we all achieve is alarmingly wide.
Radix exists to close this gap.”
Through a technical partnership with Fonterra, Radix Nutrition also developed a breakthrough in protein quality. Whey Protein DIAAS Complex 1.61 was released, featuring a complete amino acid profile with maximum bioavailability; by comparison standard whey protein isolate has a DIAAS score of just 1.0. It’s ideal for building muscle and aiding recovery. Plant Protein DIAAS Complex 1.30 is the non-diary sister product for those adhering to a plant-based diet. Radix also provides Ultimate Recovery Smoothie powders that include these advanced protein powders and additional micronutrient-dense superfoods to support your ultimate post workout nutrition.
For sport. For everyone.
Radix Nutrition’s role in sports nutrition was notably evident during the Tokyo Olympics where many New Zealand and Australian athletes relied on Radix Nutrition because their products guaranteed access to a nutritious diet when travelling abroad. Radix Nutrition has now become the established on-
the-go products for high performance athletes, and will be supporting the Tri NZ squad through to the Paris Olympics and beyond.
The company’s influence, however, extends beyond the realm of elite athletes.
“The overarching purpose of Radix is to fundamentally elevate metabolic health and performance through applied nutrition across practically all everyday use cases,” says Rudling.
“Scientific research suggests that over 90 percent of developed populations are deficient in essential nutrients that are known to play a supporting role in mitigating or preventing disease. Nutrition is a majorly overlooked and undercapitalised element of our health. The disparity between the knowledge of essential nutrients and the average intakes we all achieve is alarmingly wide. Radix exists to close this gap.”
While Radix Nutrition will fuel the NZL Mixed Relay through to the end of 2025, the company wants you to experience all the benefits of their decade of nutritional R&D now.
Choose either Whey Protein or Plant Protein and try all five delicious flavours in the Radix range Available while stocks last.
The weather outside might be frightful but winter needn’t be the default seasonal setting for the hibernation of your triathlon goals. With these smart strategies, you can continue training and even racing while freshening up for the big summer ahead.
Summer bodies are made in winter. You’ve heard the cliché but how exactly do you go about staying in shape and motivated through the long, cold winter months?
Our experts have complied a handy winter training, wellbeing and revitalisation guide to ensure you hit the ground running – and swimming and
cycling well too – this coming summer. Triathlon and its many iterations are time consuming and can be physically taxing. You deserve – and need - a bit of sofa time sometimes. Mix up the necessary R&R with a combination of these proven tips and tricks and you’ll start the new season physically and mentally refreshed and ready to be a PB smashing machine.
Is your freestyle stroke more frenetic than finely-tuned? Perhaps you struggle to maintain a TT position for your 70.3 or full Ironman ride? If so, it’s time to hit the aquatic centre or gym. Perhaps both. “For me, winter is a time for your body to chill out but it’s also about targeting and working on your weaknesses,” says Stephen Sheldrake, Tri NZ’s High Performance National Performance Manager.
Whatever your weakness (swim deficiency, tight hip flexors or a weak core anyone?) work on technique and/ or strength and conditioning and be prepared to reap the rewards during the race season. “It’s about working on the things you can’t get to when you are race focused over summer and the gym is a good place to start.”
Dr. John Hellemans is also a proponent of working on your weak discipline/s. Unless, of course, you do the exact opposite. “There are two options that I put to the age group athletes that I coach and one is to work on their weak discipline because that’s where they’ll get the most bang for their buck for the next season,” says the Good Dr., a Christchurch sports-medicine specialist whose résumé includes racing at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games, founding Tri NZ’s HP program in 1996 and coaching, to this day, some of the country’s finest triathletes. “The alternative is they focus on the discipline they enjoy the best. It depends a bit what
your goals are for the next season and if your disciplines are all lining up more or less. If they are, just do the one you enjoy best because enjoyment is a big part of what we do as age groupers.” Amen to that.
The only danger with owning long term goals is how easy it is to run out of short-term motivational puff. Especially when it is miserable outside.
If you’re targeting the Dec. 9 Ironman 70.3 Taupo, for example, consider signing up for upcoming half marathons in Taupo (Aug. 5), Hawke’s Bay (Aug. 26), North Shore (Aug. 27), Dunedin (Sept. 10) and perhaps even Auckland (Oct. 29) or Queenstown (Nov. 18) to give yourself an shorter term training goal. Running Calendar is a great resource, as is Athletics New Zealand. “We’ve all seen the athletes who go to Ironman NZ in March and get all motivated to do their first 70.3 in December but the challenge is keeping motivated in the deep, dark winter months,” says Sheldrake. “So work out a 16 week programme and crack into it. Aiming for a half marathon or another race is a great stepping stone to keep you focused.”
Talking of other races, don’t forget the 2023-24 Tri NZ Suzuki Series takes the gun at Auckland City Triathlon Club’s annual Duathlon on Aug. 13. After 12 editions at Pukekohe, the event shifts to Ambury Regional Park, Māngere Bridge and will again incorporate the Suzuki
New Zealand Sprint, Para and Schools Championships.
Fancy racing at the 2024 World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Townsville? Ambury Park is your first chance to qualify. See you there!
Competing in our sport – three sports in one after all – requires a huge time commitment and will eventually take its toll physically. Don’t discount your greatest supporters too, the loved ones who perhaps aren’t as enamoured with the 24/7 swim, bike and run lifestyle. Winter therefore presents the perfect time to decompress and reconnect.
“Don’t be afraid to take some time off,” Dr. Hellemans says. “Go to an Island or have a skiing holiday, as long as you don’t break a leg, to refresh yourself, just to have a break for mental and physical health reasons.”
Cool. But does that mean a gentle early morning jog is off limits, even if I commit to a day on the resort lounger or up the slopes? “If that’s a therapeutic thing you need, that’s fine but sometimes it’s good to have a break of those habits as well. But if you’re miserable because of that, then certainly leave the short jog, bike or run in.”
Okay, we get it. You’re an active relaxer. So why not combine that much needed holiday around a fun, warm weather race?
The annual Air New Zealand
Rarotonga Triathlon held each May, has long been a Kiwi favourite so if you’re a forward planner, maybe 2024 is an option. If you’re looking for something sooner, how about the plethora of Ironman Oceania events across the Ditch including 70.3s on the Sunshine Coast (Sept. 10), in Western Sydney (Sept. 24) and Melbourne (Nov. 12), or the PTO’s inaugural PTO Asian Open in Singapore (Aug. 20)? PTO are still taking entries for Singapore and you can combine a race with some spectating of the world’s best in the 100km elite race around the Marina Bay Financial District the previous day. If shorter distances are more your thing, why not consider the Garmin Noosa Triathlon, though you’ll have to wait till next year at the earliest to get in on that November tradition. General entries to the 40th edition this year are already sold out. The 29th Laguna Phuket Triathlon on Nov. 19 anyone?
There are numerous online platforms to relieve the boredom of indoor bike training and plenty of racing to up the ante further, the Zwift-powered Tri NZ Esport Series an excellent case in point. A second series is scheduled to start Aug. 2 – stay tuned to the official Triathlon.kiwi Esport page for more info and race links. It’s a great way to keep the legs spinning, especially if its wild and woolly outdoors. An added bonus is staying connected with your summertime rivals. Cue the virtual repartee – banter you’ll more easily be able to back up over summer given all those training miles in your legs.
If your bike handling isn’t up to Hayden Wilde standards, it’s time to get
dirty. Hit a mountain bike park and hone those handling skills and build endurance while you are at it.
Check out Cycling NZ’s new Mountain Bike NZ website – MTBNZ – for more info.
Massive in the United States, the gravel cycling revolution is gathering momentum in New Zealand with a number of races coming back on line post pandemic. It’s a perfect canvas for training too with relatively safe but challenging back roads, stunning wilderness and that crisp country air. It’s good for the legs, lungs and the soul as Anna Russell, Tri NZ Community Advisor, former pro triathlete and Zwift ambassador trumpeted in a recent social post: “Gravel riding. Where have you been all my life?”
“I think the biggest one for me is not having to ride with cars anymore, some cars but very few. Also you just get out into way more fresh air,” Russell says. “There’s a whole thing called ‘Spirit of Gravel’ which is, like, the remoteness, adventurous thing but still good training. So the training benefits but safe, adventurous, fun, fresh air, all that stuff.”
We’re sold and if you’re looking for an epic event, consider Edition Zero Gravel. Scheduled for Waimate on Nov. 25, it promises plenty of the all of the above in a wholesome South Canterbury back blocks package.
de France, consider joining a club ride or even a road race. Our friends at Cycling NZ have plenty of useful information and most club and bike shop groups, many of them on social media, will welcome fit triathletes to help tow along their regular bunch rides. The benefits will be mutual, says Dr. Hellemans. “For triathletes who do a lot of the non-drafting events, bike racing is a very novel and exciting way of improving your biking. For the sprint distances, it does help you with quite specific bunch riding. Bike racing is always very exciting and a good way for triathletes to get better quickly.
The same can be said for seeking out Masters Swimming and/or cross-country events to sharpen your technique and add training variety. The NZ Masters Swimming Championships were just held in Hawke’s Bay and stay tuned to the Swimming NZ website for details of the 2024 edition, or links to clubs. Ditto Athletics NZ who will help you find your local Harriers club/events. If it’s good enough for Hayden Wilde to run crosscountry, it’s good enough for us.
By definition, triathletes are among the most active and healthy of human beings. But it doesn’t mean we’re immune to health challenges, making winter an ideal time to get the human equivalent of your vehicle’s annual WOF.
If you’re not ready to invest in a gravel bike or have been inspired by the Tour
“I think having your body checked out is a good idea, particularly if you are a bit older and especially also if there is a family history of perhaps cardiovascular disease or even some cancers,” says Dr. Hellemans who recommends exploring three areas during a general check-up with your GP or specialist. “One is a full blood count which checks your general
health, two is cholesterol level which checks your cardiovascular health, and three, iron studies which checks your iron stores which is especially relevant for females. Males over 40 should probably have their prostate checked, their PSA, which is the Prostate Specific Antigen we test for when there is potential issues with the prostate including cancer. That will cover the main things.”
Mates. You can’t beat them – even if you can’t physically beat them – and especially not when the sofa seems far more appealing than lacing up your shoes for a training run or clipping into
the static bike for some pain cave hurt. Joining one of the 25 clubs affiliated to Tri NZ is a great way to connect with likeminded people, find training partners near you and the structured training sessions, right through winter, might be just the nudge you need to head out the door. Peter Kadar, Tri NZ’s Performance Operations Manager, North Harbour Triathlon Club member and reigning 35-39 age group Suzuki NZ Sprint champion, is an passionate advocate of the club life. He enjoys the NHTC brick sessions Saturday and then runs with a pal on Sundays. He finds tech equally rousing, including the midweek Tri NZ Esport Series, during the winter months.
There is no denying it – the sofa is appealing at this time of the year. While you are there relaxing (it’s okay!), why not enjoy a little online indulgence.
Consider a Triathlonlive.tv subscription to enjoy Hayden Wilde, Nicole van der Kaay and co. mixing it with the globe’s best through to the World Triathlon Finals in Pontevedra in late Sept. and World Cups beyond. Take note of those slick transitions while you are there. There’s oodles of inspirational content at GTN (Global Triathlon Network), particularly if you’re new to the sport, and if you need a nudge to try gravel riding, check out the excellent ‘Call of a Lifetime‘ series, also on YouTube.
Of course, we hope you’ll also find plenty of inspiration info within the pages of TQ, including all you need to know about the upcoming Tri NZ Suzuki Series. Summer is nearly upon us after all!
The colder weather brings an increased risk of cold and flu-like illnesses. Good nutrition plays a role is combating those unwanted training and performance disruptions during the winter months, or enjoyment of that much-needed Island getaway you’ve been looking forward to for months. No one wants the sniffles just as you board your flight for paradise. Tri NZ’s Lead Performance Nutritionist, Kim Abbott, shares five tips to stay on top of your nutrition:
Adequate carbohydrate stores in the muscles, before and during training, help to reduce the rise in stress hormones that can
supress your immunity. For inspiration on fuelling during training, see my Bike Bites article on page ??? (Add hyperlink to Train + Fuel Nutrition article)
Saliva contains many antimicrobial properties that help you fight off airborne germs. Staying well hydrated, with regular fluid intake during training and throughout the day, maintains good saliva flow. The cold weather can decrease your desire to drink. Including some warm drinks (e.g. fruit teas, hot chocolate, soups) can help keep your fluid intake up.
Consume a recovery meal or snack within an
hour of completing a training session. Ensure it provides a source of carbohydrate, protein and fluid.
These are great sources of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that support your immune system. Aim to get a variety of colours on your plate. Soups and smoothies can be a great way to include more fruit and vegetables in your diet.
A healthy gut is linked to a healthy immune system. Support your gut health with daily intake of foods like live yoghurts, kefir, kombucha, miso, sourdough, sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi and Yakult.
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New Ultraman world record holder Simon Cochrane advocates getting off-road in training and targeting short, sharp races to improve your fitness over winter.
When it comes to winter training, thinking outside the box can unlock significant fitness gains and propel your performance to new heights.
While many triathletes opt for indoor workouts, incorporating trail running and mountain biking into your winter plan can offer a nice change that not only builds endurance but also enhances strength, technique and mental fortitude. Paired up with some shorter, more intense races, you’ll discover a range of benefits that could transform your training routine and fitness levels before the summer season rolls around. A few of the benefits of getting out
on the trails below:
The constant adjustments to varying surfaces and obstacles challenge your
muscles, promoting strength, stability and balance throughout your entire body. Trail running strengthens your lower body muscles as they constantly adjust to the ever-changing terrain. The need to stabilise yourself on uneven surfaces also engages your core muscles, helping with overall stability and balance. Similarly, mountain biking demands significant upper body strength to manoeuvre the bike, especially
when navigating steep climbs, technical descents or tight corners. The combination of lower body engagement and upper body
“It’s quite nice to head out without worrying too much about power or pace”PHOTO: HAMISH COLLIE PHOTO: EL FINCHY PRODUCTIONS
strength requirements in both off road disciplines helps lead to a well-rounded strength and stability improvements that transfer across to other aspects of your triathlon training.
Incorporating mountain biking and trail running into your winter training provides a refreshing change of scenery and a break from the monotony of indoor workouts, and without the standard structure of triathlon specific sessions. It’s quite nice to head out without worrying too much about power or pace.
Riding a mountain bike or navigating a run trail requires concentration, focus, and quick decision-making. These activities present obstacles and technical challenges that demand mental resilience and adaptability. By mountain biking and trail running during the winter, you’ll strengthen your mental fortitude, allowing you to overcome adversity and stay focused during summer races, especially when
faced with unexpected conditions or difficult sections of a course.
Adding speed work and participating in shorter races during your winter training can provide some great benefits that complement your overall racing performance. There are plenty of 5km Park run events you can jump into for free, or it may just be a local fun run or swim event. Here are a few of the advantages:
Speed work, such as shorter interval training sessions or sprints will help improve your ability to generate speed, sustain higher intensities, and handle higher pain thresholds. This translates into a faster pace during your summer races, especially during fast racing and sprint finishes.
Engaging in shorter races helps enhance your economy, which refers to the energy
cost of maintaining a specific speed. Pushing yourself in these races allows you to fine-tune your form and efficiency. As you become more economical in your mechanics (stride and stroke), you’ll be able to maintain a faster pace while expending less energy, ultimately benefiting your overall racing performance.
Participating in shorter races provides valuable opportunities to develop mental toughness and race-specific strategies. These races often demand a high level of intensity and require you to push yourself to your limits. By challenging yourself in shorter races, you’ll become more accustomed to managing discomfort, dealing with raceday nerves, and executing effective pacing strategies. These mental skills can greatly benefit your performance during longer races in the summer.
Incorporating shorter races into your training allows you to gauge your fitness levels and monitor your progress more effectively. By regularly participating in races, you can track your race times and
evaluate your performance. This feedback enables you to adjust your training and identify areas that require improvement. It also provides a benchmark for setting realistic goals and training zones for your upcoming races.
Engaging in shorter races helps build racing experience and boosts your confidence for your race morning routines and executions. These events provide a valuable opportunity to practice race-day rituals, experience the dynamics of a race environment, and develop a competitive mindset. The more races you participate in, the more comfortable and confident you’ll become, which can only positively impact your performance come race day.
Simon Cochrane, is an elite triathlete, ultra-runner and the current World Record holder for the Ultraman triathlon. He is also the head coach at Athletic Peak Endurance Sports Coaching. www.athleticpeak.co.nz
Shattered. The world record that is and not, implausibly, the superhuman who had just achieved the most extraordinary sports feat by a New Zealander this year. Simon Cochrane relives his record breaking Ultraman Australia in May.
Ultraman Australia, held in the beautiful Noosa region and surrounding hinterland area, was an unforgettable race. The rain and wind seemed to have followed us from New Zealand, so the conditions set the stage for an extraordinary race that would challenge the athletes across the three big days of swim, bike and run. I had prepared well and was looking forward to the challenge ahead.
The race kicked off with a 10km swim in the crystal-clear waters of Noosa. I surged ahead, determined to establish an early lead. Emerging from the swim in first place, I quickly transitioned to the rolling bike course, setting my sights on increasing
the gap between me and the other strong competitors. I managed to extend my swim lead and ended up crossing the finish line with a commanding 36-minute lead. I knew I had laid a strong foundation for the days ahead.
The second day presented a demanding 275km solo time trial. Rain poured down
as we started. Some of the strongest cyclists attempted to break away and claw back some lost time but I was happy to stick to my plan and ride a strong, well calculated race. The wind and rain eased through out, so the pace was on. I clocked just over 7 hours for the hilly course and only lost 4 mins all day. As we sped back into town, I maintained my overall lead and remained on track to break the course record.
The final day brought a double marathon run - 84.4km. Into the unknown, and starting on some weary legs, I just got into my work and was soon into the zone. Comfortably uncomfortable, all day. Fortunately, I had the support of pacers who joined me on this leg, providing some banter and carrying crucial nutrition and drinks. A strong effort over the hills and out to the marathon mark had me on pace for a great day. At the halfway point, I found myself turning with a time of 2 hours and 58 minutes, setting the stage for a strong finish and possible record if I didn’t fade. I pushed through the remaining miles, crossing the finish line with a double marathon time of 6 hours and 6 minutes, solidifying my lead by over 2 hours.
With a total time of 19 hours and 48 minutes, I had just set a new world record by over 80mins! A testament to the months of dedicated training and unwavering focus. The support of my incredible crew of family and friends made this journey all the more special. As I reflect on this achievement, my sights are set on Ultraman Canada in late July, with the ultimate goal of competing in the World Championships in Hawaii later this year. The challenge of racing three Ultraman events in fairly quick succession is daunting but the training and the thrill of pushing my limits fuel my determination. Stay tuned for more exciting developments as I continue to challenge what is possible, and chase some epic adventures.
“The challenge of racing three Ultraman events in faily quick succession is daunting, but the training and the thrill of pushing my limits fuels my determination”
Triathlon is an endurance sport and whether you are training for a sprint race or a full Ironman, you will spend many hours on the bike. To get the best out of a session, it is crucial to fuel your training rides well. Adequate fuelling helps prevent fatigue, poor concentration and poor performance in later stages of a ride. It may also reduce your risk of illness and injury. What you consume during your ride can be as important as what you eat before.
How much fuel do you need?
Carbohydrate is the most efficient fuel source during exercise. It is broken down
Save money and add taste to your training rides with these recipes, including two cheap homemade sports drink options.
Kim Abbott is Tri NZ’s Lead Performance Nutritionist and works as a Performance Nutritionist at HPSNZ. She is a NZ Registered Dietitian and Accredited Sports Dietitian
to provide energy much faster than other fuel sources. Fat provides energy at a much slower rate. As training intensity increases, your muscles need fuel faster, so carbohydrate becomes the main fuel source. Carbohydrate is stored in our muscles, so it is the most easily accessible fuel during exercise. Unfortunately, our muscle stores are limited and only last about one to two hours, depending on the intensity of the training ride. The faster you go, the quicker you will use up your stores. If your carbohydrate stores run out, your body will switch to using fat for fuel, which will force you to reduce the intensity you can work at. This is often described as “hitting the wall” or “bonking”.
The bottom line is, if your training ride requires power, speed, and high effort, carbohydrate will be your best fuel source.
Recommended carbohydrate intakes during training are:
» < 1 hour: Water will be sufficient, particularly for a low intensity session.
» For a high intensity session, you could consider having a carbohydrate drink or snack.
» 1 – 2 hours: 30-60g per hour
» 2 – 3 hours: 60-90 g per hour
» >3 hours: 90g per hour
Your body cannot absorb more than 60g of a single carbohydrate source (e.g. glucose) per hour. Intakes above this may lead to stomach discomfort. Consuming
a mix of foods and fluid on long rides can help to ensure you are getting different sources of carbohydrate to aid absorption, as well as prevent flavour fatigue.
How can you get the fuel you need?
Many athletes use sports drinks like Powerade and sports foods such as gels and sports bars to fuel their training sessions. These are an easy way to carry and consume carbohydrate on the bike. The product label will state exactly how much carbohydrate each product contains e.g. gels often provide ~25g of carbohydrate and sports drink ~30-35g / 500ml. Although these products are convenient, they can be expensive and on longer rides you may want to consume something more substantial, in addition to liquid sources of carbohydrate.
Food sources that provide ~30g of carbohydrate:
» 4-5 jet plane lollies
» 1 large banana
» 1 spicy fruit muffin split
» 1 slice of bread with jam or honey
» 2 baby food fruit pouches
» 10-12 dried apricots
Savoury food sources of carbohydrate can be a great way to add some flavour variety during a long ride e.g. vegemite sandwich, sushi rice balls, baked potatoes, salted pretzels, bagel crisps.
Long rides are a great opportunity to practise your race-day nutrition. Trial different foods so you know what sits well in your stomach and what doesn’t as this can be very individual. Find out what sports drinks and foods will be provided at aid stations so you can trial these in training before the big day. If you tolerate
Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 50 minutes. Serves: 12.
1 serve/slice provides ~30g carbohydrate
Ingredients
✓ 1 ½ cup soft brown sugar
✓ 3 eggs
✓ 1 tsp vanilla essence
✓ 4 bananas, 3 mashed and 1 on top
✓ ½ cup Harraways Rolled Outs
✓ ½ cup coconut threads
✓ 1 ¼ cup plain flour
✓ ½ teaspoon baking powder
✓ 2 teaspoons cinnamon
✓ teaspoon salt
✓ ¼ cup milk
✓ ⅓ teaspoon baking soda
✓ ⅓ cup walnuts
✓ 120g Dark Ghana Chocolate
1. Preheat the oven to 160⁰C. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
2. Place melted butter and brown sugar in a large bowl and stir until sugar has dissolved. Add the eggs, vanilla essence and mashed banana and mix.
3. Place the milk and baking soda in a bowl and stir until baking soda has dissolved. Add to banana mixture with dry ingredients, chocolate and nuts. Fold until well combined.
4. Pour batter into loaf tin. Slice the remaining banana in half lengthways and place on top of the loaf. Sprinkle over rolled oats.
5. Bake in the oven for ~50 minutes or until golden brown and the skewer comes out clean.
the products well, you may decide that you don’t need to carry as much nutrition on race day.
Adequate hydration is also essential to get the best out of a training ride. Sports drinks are a convenient way of consuming fluid, electrolytes and carbohydrate on the bike. A cheaper alternative is to make your own. These two options provide between 25-30g of carbohydrate/500ml:
» Mix ½ packet of Raro powder (40g) with 750ml water. Add a pinch of salt.
» Dilute 300ml orange or fruit juice with 300ml water. Add a pinch of salt.
Here are a couple of “bike bites” recipes to give a go:
Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: 5 minutes. Serves: 10.
1 serve/slice provides ~30g
carbohydrate
Ingredients
✓ 125g butter
✓ 125g white sugar
✓ 2 Tablespoons honey
✓ 4 cups Coco pops (or rice bubbles)
1. Combine butter, sugar, and honey in a pot over a low heat.
2. Stir until boiling, then boil for ~5 minutes.
3. Remove pot from heat and add the Coco pops. Mix well.
4. Pour into a tray lined with baking paper. Cut into 10 slices once it’s almost cooled. Recipe sourced from chelsea.co.nz
We all want clean sporting competitions in which the best athlete wins. Working together, we can achieve it.
Keeping sport clean takes a community and we all have a role to play. It’s time to discover yours.
Discover your role at drugfreesport.org.nz/myrole
How
With the arrival of winter and the increase in varied terrain during cross country season, the ability of our ankles to absorb force and create stability is truly tested. The bones and ligament structure of the ankle are designed for stability, limiting rolling and sprains from each misplaced step.
When we walk, the ankle absorb forces up to five times your body weight during stance phase (the foot’s contact phase with the ground). This can increase towards 13 times body weight during running.
The combination of the ulna, fibula and tarsal create a hinge joint between the lower leg and foot. The decrease in mobility that
is seen from a hinge join is normally the biproduct of the forces that have evolved its design. The raw nature of cross country season always creates that one moment of astonishment when you somehow managed to save yourself from disaster of a slip or loose rock moving. However, stability alone doesn’t create a great cross country runner. The ability to absorb force from a variety of different angles and use it to propel forwards into the next step, maximising economy, is what I deem to be the ankles greatest feat.
Optimal performance isn’t achieved from running with sponges for feet, as this only accomplishes comfort and doesn’t repurpose force towards our intended direction. The ankles design during human locomotion assists with economy. During stance phase, the ankle goes through three motion phases:
1. the heel rocker, 2. the ankle rocker, and
3. the forefoot rocker. These three phases combine to absorb force from heel strike and transfer some of this momentum to toe off, repurposing the force into forward propulsion. In conjunction with the ankle rocker design, the calf’s contraction resulting in plantarflexion further improves force. In a triathlon lens, the ankle performs it function beautifully. Maintaining a long plantarflexed shape during swimming to increase kicking power, stability to relay force during cycling and force absorb and impetus during running. However, for many, the ankle is one of the simplest areas to improve.
a minimal time and effort investment in the gym can strengthen your ankles and lead to faster run times.
Ankle stiffness can send shivers down your spine as the normal reaction to this thought of pounding contacts on pavement leads to the mind thinking of the impeding shin splints or worse. The reality is with proper running mechanics and a strengthen foot, ankle and calf, free economy awaits. Polar opposite to our current cross-country season we are watching Zoe Hobbs amass a collection of sub 11 second 100m times overseas. Sprinting provides the most drastic version of a stiff foot, ankle, and calf. Elite sprinters look as if they have springs attached to their lower limbs, an antelope bounding down the track. With the distances a lot of us run within a session or week, this antelope running style isn’t going to be possible. However, with a little improvement in stiffness, a 1-2cm increase in stride length can be the result. If correctly done, the metabolic cost of this increased stride length won’t change. The elastic components of our foot, ankle and calf will repurpose the heel strike forces towards propulsion. Within a
100m sprinting context, if 50 steps are taken, this alteration in stiffness can result in the track effectively becoming 50 to 100cm shorter. In our realm, the change is far more drastic. Given the shear distance/time and frequency you run during your local 5km, a 1cm increase in stride length quickly adds up
to a drastic reduction in overall steps, effort, and time.
This doesn’t mean you should deliberately increase stride length on your next run. That can be detrimental. If heel strike occurs too far out in front of the body, it effectively creates a breaking force. My proposal is to invest some time into strengthening the ankle and surround area to gain the stride length increases more organically. The incorporation of calf strengthening exercises such as seated calf raises (above), standing calf raise and skipping (left) two to three times a week is a great initial phase to building strength. The increase in ankle, foot and calf strength and stretch shortening cycle ability allows for the storage and expression of force from each step to assist in creating propulsion.
We all know nothing comes for free, but simply implementing the foot, calf and ankle exercises above at the cost of 5-10 minutes, two to three times a week will have a positive effect on your running economy. In my eyes that little effort and time requirement needed in comparison to its influence on your running going forward is almost getting something for nothing.
“Optimal performance isn’t achieved from running with sponges for feet, as this only accomplishes comfort and doesn’t repurpose force towards our inteded direction.”
Add recruitment specialist to Ange Keen’s deep pool of talents with the Pontevedra-bound world champion luring partner Brad Smith into the tri life.
When Ange Keen isn’t out on the beat keeping our streets safe, she’ll likely be somewhere off Rotorua’s beaten tracks honing the skills that make her a poster girl for all that is great about triathlon.
Actually, that intro doesn’t do Constable Keen justice. Front line policing has never been for the faint of heart but has become increasingly more challenging during Keen’s 4½, pandemic-impacted years in the force, the majority of them in New Plymouth before she transferred north. Likewise, the 35-year-old isn’t your stock-standard, weekend warrior triathlete either, rather a serial medallist at World Triathlon age group level since 2014.
It should also be noted that Keen’s doing a sterling job as an unofficial recruitment officer for the sport with partner Brad Smith, a member of the NZ Police Dog Section, now a fully conscripted swim, bike and run devotee. More on Smith’s epic entry into the sport at last summer’s Seven Oaks Kinloch Triathlon Festival soon.
Keen’s story is one of a late-comer to tri, equestrian having been her early sporting love after growing up in a horse-mad Wellington family, Ohariu Valley to be percise.
“I did mainly dressage and that was at a national level, and then a bit of eventing before I gave up. Eventing was a little more exciting and I guess that’s kind of where the tri fitted in well, being the three different disciplines.
“My parents were obviously very happy when I gave the horses up for a bike, it’s a lot cheaper [laughs].”
Mr and Mrs Keen have Jo Saxton, then team leader
at Keith Fry Pool in Johnsonville where Keen worked at the time, to thank for the transition from horse to human powered fun.
“It wasn’t until I was about 22, 23 that I got into tri, Jo inspired me to get into it, she was just cool,” Keen said.
“It’s definitely one of those just being inspired by someone else stories. She really helped me out, lent me a bike, I just did one of the triathlons they did at Scorching Bay in Wellington and I was pretty much hooked.”
“My parents were obviously very happy when I gave the horses up for a bike, it’s a lot cheaper!”
– ANGE KEEN
Fast-forward to early May and Keen’s late-blooming, sporting love-affair saw her win the 35-39 Cross Triathlon title at the World Triathlon Multisport Championship in Ibiza, Spain. It was her fifth world championship (and counting) and so, so sweet to finally crack the top step of the podium after previously medalling at the 2017 Aquathlon and Long Distance worlds in Penticton, Canada – both silvers – and the 2018 worlds in Fyn, Denmark where she was third in the Aquathlon.
“Yup, very happy, that’s been a long time coming that,” said Keen who is coached by Graham Park. “I used to do the long distance stuff but just due to on-going injuries,
that’s why I’ve gone to the off road events and definitely found that’s where it’s at for me.”
Keen is taking a wee deviation from the mountain and trail running side of triathlon to race the Super Sprint Triathlon and Standard Distance Aquabike at the World Triathlon Finals in Pontevedra in late September. The generosity of Tri NZ Patron Garth Barfoot, who heavily subsidised the trip to Spain for Keen and Liam Miller as Tri NZ Suzuki Series Aquabike champions, made the opportunity to good to turn down.
“After being on a bit of a roll after Ibiza, I may as carry on and see what I can do,” Keen said before reflecting on what keeps her coming back for more after racing previous world championships in Edmonton (2014), Chicago (2015), Penticton (2017), Fyn (2018) and Ibiza.
“I think it’s because when I got into tri, I lived a very different life, like partying and drinking and stuff and everyone was like, what are you doing, you’re not going to do any good at that. It was just this challenge to see what I could do.
“Then it’s the travel, I love travelling, and meeting other people. I’ve meet so many amazing people in this sport over the years. Being able to tie all that together is what I love about it.”
Like Ibiza, Smith will occupy the aeroplane seat beside Keen for the return to Spain. If a niggly knee injury allows,
“Then it’s the travel, I love travelling, and meeting other people. I’ve meet so many amazing people in this sport over the years. ”
– ANGE KEEN
he’ll race too like he did in Ibiza where he placed 25th in the 35-39 age group Aquathlon.
Perhaps even more than Keen, Smith’s story highlights the beauty of the Tri NZ Suzuki Series-World Triathlon eco system as he was able to represent NZ just three months after his very first race at Kinloch.
“He has a swimming background, use to swim at national level, and just when we started seeing each other, I was out training all the time and he just started tagging along,” Keen says of a romance more than three years deep and going strong.
“He’s one of those natural kind of fit people anyway so he came out on some mountain bike rides with me and yeah, just decided when we were in Kinloch to race, because he was there, so why not, right?”
But wait, there’s more.
“It was the morning of the race because the Aquathlon was in the afternoon, we went into town [Taupo] and got a wetsuit, a little race belt, everything you need for a race, and yeah off he went. Had to buy goggles, a cap, everything.”
Keen says it was “very special” not only having Smith there to share her gold in Ibiza, but racing as well. And yes, there’s another lastminute.com twist that might just see Smith pack his bike for the return to Spain.
“When we went Ibiza, we flew out of Wellington so we could stay with my family and on the way down to Wellington we stopped and he bought a road bike. He’s got a road bike now, really, he’s got no excuses!”
Don’t dream of wearing the Silver Fern offshore, get to a Tri NZ Suzuki Series race and make it happen! Our guide to the Tri NZ – World Triathlon eco-system explains all.
World Triathlon Age Group Championship
Pontevedra, Spain – Sept. 22-24
World Triathlon Multisport Championship
Townsville, Australia – August 14-25, 2023
World Triathlon Age Group Championships
Malaga, Spain– October, 2024
Pontevedra disciplines Standard Distance Tri (Non draft), Sprint Distance (Non draft), Standard Distance Aquabike (Non draft).
›› GO TO OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Tri
Tinman Triathlon (Nov. 20, 2022)
– Standard Distance Tri RACE REPORT
Canterbury Classic (Jan. 29, 2023)
– Standard Distance Tri RACE REPORT
Kinloch Triathlon Festival (Feb. 11-12, 2023)
– Standard Distance Aquabike RACE REPORT
Townsville disciplines Aquathlon, Cross Triathlon, Duathlon Sprint, Duathlon Standard, Mid Distance Triathlon, Cross Duathlon, Mid Distance Aquabike
›› GO TO OFFICIAL
Tri NZ Suzuki Series Qualifying Races
Auckland Duathlon (Aug. 13, 2023)
– Sprint Duathlon AG + Schools
Sprint Distance Tri CLICK HERE
Oxman (Nov. 26, 2023)
– Mid Tri CLICK HERE
Mt Festival of Multsport (Jan. 20, 2024)
– Mid Tri, Mid Aquabike CLICK HERE
Challenge Wanaka (Feb. 17, 2024)
– Cross Tri, Cross Duathlon, Mid Aquabike
CLICK HERE
Kinloch Triathlon Festival (Jan. 20, 2024)
– Aquathlon CLICK HERE
Malaga disciplines Standard Distance Triathlon, Sprint Distance Triathlon, Standard Distance Aquabike, Mixed Relay
Tri NZ Suzuki Series Qualifying Races
Tinman Triathlon (Nov. 19, 2023)
– Standard Tri CLICK HERE
Kinloch Triathlon Festival (Jan. 20, 2024)
– Standard Aquabike CLICK HERE
Tri Taranaki Festival (Feb. 11, 2024)
– Sprint Distance Tri CLICK HERE
Canterbury Classic (Jan 28, 2024)
– Standard Distance Tri CLICK HERE
Need Help?
If you have any questions or need more information, contact Tri NZ Community Manager Mel Saltiel at mel.saltiel@triathlon.kiwi
Auckland Duathlon Championships
August 13, 2023 (Ambury Regional Park, Mangere Bridge)
Suzuki NZ Sprint Duathlon Championships (Townsville)
Suzuki NZ Sprint Duathlon Schools Championship (Townsville)
Suzuki NZ Sprint Duathlon Para Championship
Gen X/Marra Tinman Triathlon
November 19, 2023 (Pilot Bay, Mt Maunganui)
Suzuki NZ Standard Distance Triathlon Championships (Malaga)
Suzuki NZ Para Sprint Triathlon Championships
3.
Fulton Hogan Mt Festival of Multisport
January 20, 2024 (Pilot Bay, Mt Maunganui)
Suzuki NZ North Island Mid Distance Triathlon Championships* (Townsville)
Suzuki NZ North Island Mid Distance Aquabike Championships* (Townsville)
The Tri NZ Suzuki Series has a race for athletes of all ages and every stage of triathlon. It doesn’t matter if you are racing for the first time, a PB or World Triathlon Age Group Championship selection, you won’t regret getting involved.
The 2023-24 series features triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon, aquabike, cross triathlon and cross duathlon races for 18 national titles (at each age group level), spread across 10 events and 11 race days from August 2023 to late March 2024. Here you’ll find all the info you need including 2024 World Triathlon Age Group Championship qualification requirements.
2024 World Triathlon Multisport World Championships
Townsville, Australia (August 14-25)
QUALIFYING INFO
2024 World Triathlon Age Group Championship Finals Malaga, Spain (October 2024 TBC)
QUALIFYING INFO
On selection race day you must be:
• A citizen or permanent resident of NZ or have been residing in NZ for minimum of 12 months
• A current member of Tri NZ (join TRIBE HERE) One Day and Social member excluded, or
• Be a current member of a Tri NZ Affiliated Club
• Nomination forms must be submitted within 48 hours post qualifier
Slot Allocation
One qualifying event: 16 spots per age-group, per gender and 4 Special Circumstances
Seven Oaks Kinloch Triathlon Festival
February 10-11, 2024 (Kinloch, Tauop)
Suzuki NZ Aquathlon Championships (Feb 10th/ Townsville)
Suzuki NZ Standard Distance Aquabike Championships (Feb 11th/Malaga)
6.
Nutri-Grain Ironman New Zealand March 2, 2024 (Taupo)
Suzuki NZ Long Distance Triathlon Championship
Tri Taranaki Festival March 10, 2024 (Ngamotu Beach, New Plymouth)
Suzuki NZ Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships (Malaga)
The Canterbury Classic
January 28, 2024 (Corsair Bay, Lyttelton)
Suzuki NZ South Island Standard Distance Triathlon Championships* (Malaga)
Integrity Homes Challenge Wanaka
February 17, 2024 (Glendhu Bay, Lake Wanaka)
Suzuki NZ Mid Distance Aquabike Championships (Townsville)
Suzuki NZ Cross Triathlon Championships (Townsville)
Suzuki NZ Cross Duathlon Championships (Townsville)
Suzuki NZ Secondary School Triathlon Championships
Venue & Date TBC
Two qualifying events: 12 spots per age-group at the NZ Championship, *6 spots at the North or South Island Championships and 2 Special Circumstances
At the qualifier, you must:
• finish within 20% of the gendered age group winners time
• finish within the number of allocated slots (based on AG finished position)
The exception to the 20% threshold is where the winner finishes 5/10/15 minutes or more ahead of second place. In this instance, the 20% threshold is taken from the second-place getters time.
wgtntriclub.com
Key Contacts:
President Matthew Berg (029 9733538) Coaches Tri Wellington don’t employ a fulltime coach but have some legendary coaches within the club –see the ‘Local Coaches’ page on our website
Event Director Tri Wellington outsources it’s key events to the wonderful Bengy Barsanti and his ‘Barefoot sports’ team
What makes your club special? For starters, we have the cheapest membership this side of 1991 – just $10 to join. We have been the most successful club at Ironman Taupo for the last five years running and our club tent also makes the most noise.
We love welcoming new members to our Saturday coffee rides and no other club can compare to our prize giving which is inside the actual parliament banquet chamber!
History Snapshot: In 1984/85 there were was a high interest for multi-sport events based around swimming, cycling, canoeing and running which lead to a number of community groups forming around NZ. In Auckland, in 1984, the NZ Triathlon Association was formed with a focus on swim-bike-run but south of the Bombay Hills a
Multisport Association of NZ (neither group was initially aware of the other!) was formally constituted in 1985. Leaders in the forming of MANZ were Bernard Fletcher (Taranaki), Gary Moller and Arthur Klap (Wellington), Derek Beaven (Rotorua), Tom Pryde (Invercargill) and Terry Newlands (Auckland).The Wellington branch of MANZ was established at an AGM on April 3, 1985 with Klap elected as President, Graham Singer as Treasurer and Brent Harrison as Secretary. At the 1986 AGM of MANZ Wellington, a motion was passed for the club to affiliate with NZTA with Klap to be the club’s voting delegate. In 1989 Klap visited all triathlon/multisport clubs and so developed the sport’s first development plan and NZTA and MANZ became one body comprising 11 districts around New Zealand. The highlight for the club, today know as Tri Wellington, came in 1994 when it hosted the then ITU World Championships.
Swimming lanes are hard to come by in Wellington but we have three great coaches offering morning squads. Gerrard Smith and Ben Lavigne are based out of the Johnsonville pool and Deb Lynch is in Tawa. Our Saturday group rides are pretty relaxed; just check our Facebook page to make sure it is on. If you want structured training, please connect with one of the coaches at the link left.
OPPOSITE
What are your big races each year? Winterman is the biggest club event, although isn’t so much a race as an episode of Survivor as out of shape triathletes battle to complete a half ironman in the middle of winter!
If there is one race out-of-towners should target, it has to be? We are encouraging out of towners to come to the Wellington Standard distance champs at Pauatahanui in late November. This is our new course which features a sheltered swim, a country bike ride and a scenic board walk run. It’s definitely worth a crack so stay tuned to our website for the TBC date. It’s tide dependent!
Famous alumni: Too many to name although Scott Ballance, Evelyn Williamson, Andrew Young, Martin Van Barneveld spring to mind. Our rurrent elites include Deb Lynch, Michael Tong and Lucas Duross.
Who are you highest profile members and one junior boy and girl to watch: We are very much a long distance club now, with over 90 competitors at Taupo for Ironman NZ and 70.3 so I have to go with Lucas Duross, the gardening Ironman and for our promising junior watch out for Luke Kuggeleijn who was on fire before he injured his shoulder last season.
Who are the club members who epitomise all that is great about your club and triathlon?
Claire Jennings (pictured directly below) is a club legend, a former club president who does every local event and usually organises others to join her. She has knocked off some big races, most famously the Breca Bay of Islands swim/run with teammate Helen Majorhazi. They almost missed the boat home but they will always have the glory of finishing an epic event!
There’s no better place to fuel your passion than at a Tri NZ-affiliated club. Great people, inspirational training opportunities and epic races abound. Click on the club nearest you and get involved in the Tribe Nation*!
*A Tri NZ ‘Tribe’ membership allows you to race national and international events including World Triathlon events, plus receive regular updates from the national body.
Hibiscus Coast Harriers & Triathlon Club
Waitakere Triathlon & Multisport Club
North Harbour Triathlon Club
Auckland City Tri Club
Hamilton Tri Club Team Shorebreak
Triathlon Tauranga
Rotorua Ass. of Triathlon & Multisport (RATS)
Eastern BoP Triathlon & Multisport Club
Taranaki Triathlon Club
Tri Sport Taupo
Eastland Triathlon & Multisport Club
Whanganui Multisport Club
Tri Hawke’s Bay
Triathlon
Manawatu
Kapiti Running & Tri Club
Wellington Triathlon Club
South Island
Marlborough Triathlon & Multisport Club
Triathlon Nelson
Canterbury Triathlon Club
South Canterbury Pacers
Tri Wanaka
Oamaru Multisport Club
Dunedin Tri Club
Southland Triathlon & Multisport Club
Jo Baker will celebrate her 50th birthday by racing for Team NZL at the World Triathlon Age Group Championships in September. The party in Pontevedra, Spain will be emotional, as Rachel Wise discovers.
As critically injured Central Hawke’s Bay triathlete Jo Baker lay in a Wellington hospital bed, she remembers promising her husband and daughters she would never cycle race again.
Baker was recovering from surgery for a life-threatening traumatic brain injury, having crashed from her bike during a race. She had also broken 14 bones on the right side of her body, from her pelvis to her head.
ABOVE: “Very close”. That’s what the neurosurgeon said when asked how close Baker had come to dying.
LEFT: Finishing the swim leg en route to qualifying for World Triathlon Finals in Spain.
Her injuries were so serious she had been airlifted by rescue helicopter from the accident site on a rural Central Hawke’s Bay road. The chopper flew her to Hawke’s Bay Hospital. A further flight rushed her to Wellington.
Following by road were Baker’s husband Neil and her two daughters Laken and Dani.
They had to pull over on the way to answer a call from a Wellington neurosurgeon. Baker’s brain injury was life-threatening, he told Neil. “I need your permission to operate.”
“That’s the worst part for me,” Baker now says. “What they went through.”
The accident happened two and a half years ago on a regular cycle club race. On Nichols Rd, Waipukurau,
going downhill at a speed of about 40kmh, Baker was racing in a bunch.
“It was a dreadful day I will never forget,” says Baker. “Well, I actually can’t remember the crash but I can remember parts of the race - I was having such a good race - and I remember what came in the weeks after.
“They tell me I hit a pinecone. I don’t recall anything.”
“They tell me I hit a pinecone. I don’t recall anything.”
– JO BAKER
While still in Wellington Hospital, Jo began to have a change of heart.
“I decided that when I turned 50 I wanted to represent New Zealand in the 2023 World Triathlon Age-Group Championships.”
Baker asked her husband and daughters’ permission to go back on her promise.
The girls said “Mum I know this is what you enjoy doing. You could deny yourself, and still get hit by a bus tomorrow”.
“My neurosurgeon said ‘yes, 100 per cent get back on your bike. Exercise is important, and fresh air, and you’ll be miserable if you don’t’.
“So the Worlds has been my goal ever since. And I was going to be really pissed off if they were in New Zealand as I wanted to travel.”
Baker was in luck; the event is to be held in Pontevedra in September.
But the road to Spain has been hard-fought. Baker’s elbow had to be reattached with hardware.
“Six weeks in three different hospitals, then home and a lot of physical therapy. When I was able to go to the pool, that became my happy place. With Michele Hayes keeping watch, I had my own lifeguard. I strapped on an aqua belt and walked up and down the pool... that was all I could do as everything was broken.
“In the pool though, my brain injury symptoms just went away. That made such a difference. Eventually I could put my arms out and walk a length. I went to the pool every day, it took away the pressure of being housebound.”
From the pool, Baker advanced to cycling.
“I was completely fine, I had no recollection of coming off so, although I was cautious, I was fine. Neil was nervous, I think he watched me more than he watched the road.
“I am back doing the Sunday bunch rides but I pick my position...I ride on Neil’s wheel. It’s the wheel I know and trust. It makes him happier too that I am there.”
Training to qualify for the Worlds,
where she will do a 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km run, Baker has spent “lots of time in the pool, lots of time on the bike”.
“Cycling is still my strength. The running is very hard on the body. I started really slowly, walk running. Running still hurts.”
Baker travelled to Christchurch to qualify for the World Triathlon Age-Group Championships. That achieved, she had to face fundraising for the trip.
“Unless you are elite, there’s no funding available from Triathlon NZ. Costs are estimated to be around $9000.”
Baker planned a fundraising raffle and tentatively approached a few CHB businesses to sponsor prizes. She was astonished and gratified at the support she received.
“I was aiming to sell 200 tickets starting on Facebook, then sit outside New World, and sell the rest. I sold 500 straight away, I don’t even have to sit outside the supermarket. I can’t get my head around it! I’m going to do two draws...under police supervision of course.”
Another fundraising idea cropped up as Jo talked to friend Serena Parkinson, who with her husband Donald runs the Civic Theatre in Waipukurau. Parkinson said “we need to find a movie we can screen as a fundraiser”.
The movie they found, Baker says, is perfect. The Last Rider is about American cyclist Greg LeMond who fought back from severe injury to win the Tour de France in 1989.
“His story is so close to mine. It’s not just about cycling it’s about
ABOVE: Not a great way to get a new hairstyle - Jo’s incision from the brain surgery that saved her life.
RIGHT: Jo’s elbow had to be reattached with hardware.
“I broke multiple bones in my pelvis, collarbone, ribs, neck, facial bones, nose and jaw, my elbow had to be reattached and severe road rash on my hand needed surgery.
I [also] had a brain injury...”
– JO BAKER
overcoming everything. He came back and won the Tour de France. I’m not going to come back and win, my aim is to finish...to run the whole 10km, to not come last, to finish with a smile on my face and make my supporters proud of me. I will probably cry. It’s about not giving up on what you love.”
The Civic Theatre was to screen The Last Rider on July 30. Baker was to be interviewed onstage by CHB’s “coach” Tim Ewen. Drinks were be donated by sponsor New World Waipukurau, and refreshments were available.
Baker’s surprised and delighted by all the support she’s received, from loyal friends, sponsors and donations right through to the community who provided food and baking to sustain her family while she was in hospital. She’s always been a staunch community supporter and Cycling CHB committee member and sees it as perhaps the support she’s shown being turned back in her direction.
“The support has helped so much. If I wake up in the morning and don’t feel like getting up to go to the pool I think of everyone who bought
unable to make it, and will post on Facebook so my supporters can ‘be there’.
“My accident was a big thing, not just for myself and my family but for the cyclists who were racing with me when it happened.
“I get really cross when I see people cycling without wearing a helmet. Do that for yourself and your family at the very least.
raffle tickets and think ‘Jo, you have to get up.’ Going public has made me accountable.
“I feel like I want to take everyone to Spain with me. Of course Neil will be there as my main supporter and also competing in the Aquabike. Our daughter Laken is going to be backpacking and will meet us there - she will stream the event live to our other daughter Dani, who is
“People say to me ‘don’t you feel lucky?’ No I feel bloody unlucky that I came off. But I feel lucky I’ve had a full recovery. I broke multiple bones in my pelvis, collarbone, ribs, neck, facial bones, nose and jaw, my elbow had to be reattached and severe road rash on my hand needed surgery. I had a brain injury...I had been one month in my new job at CHB College and everything I’d learned in that month was pretty much gone. The support from my new work colleagues was really great, especially as I had to return to work on a very gradual return-to-work programme.
“The enormity of it didn’t really sink in until a year later. I was still in denial and when I went back to see my neurosurgeon, Neil asked him ‘can you explain to Jo how close she was to dying?’ And he said ‘very close’.
“We only get one life, enjoy it. We don’t know what’s around the corner so do everything you can to follow your passion. I want people to know not to give up. I turned 40 in London, now I get to turn 50 at a triathlon in Spain, where will I be when I turn 60? Life’s an adventure worth fighting for.”
“I would really like to thank everyone who has been involved with my recovery in some way.
“My family who I love so much, the local St John Ambulance crew, the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter, all the doctors and nurses in Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Central Hawke’s Bay, everyone involved in my rehab, my work, my sponsors who have helped with my fundraising, my awesome friends and those who I continue to make memories with.”
“I want people to know not to give up. I turned 40 in London, now I get to turn 50 at a triathlon in Spain, where will I be when I turn 60?”
Results from the past quarter’s key World Triathlon and Tri NZ events, including the final Suzuki NZ Series events of 2022-23 and the NZ Junior Series, plus Challenge Wanaka and Ironman NZ.
WTCS ABU DHABI
Yas Island, UAE - March 3, 2023
Female
Beth Potter (GBR)
Sophie Coldwell (GBR)
Taylor Spivey (USA)
Summer Rappaport (USA)
Lena Meißner (GER)
Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA)
Nina Eim (GER)
Emma Lombardi (FRA)
Verena Steinhauser (ITA)
Lisa Tertsch (GER)
Ainsley Thorpe (NZL)
Male
Alex Yee (GBR)
Vasco Vilaca (POR)
Manoel Messias (BRA)
Vincent Luis (FRA)
Dorian Coninx (FRA)
Léo Bergere (FRA)
Roberto Sanchez Mantecon (ESP)
Matthew McElroy (USA)
Max Studer (SUI)
Adrien Briffod (SUI)
Kyle Smith (NZL)
Hayden Wilde (NZL)
WTCS YOKOHAMA
Japan - May 13, 2023
Swim 1500m | Bike 40km | Run 10km
Elite Female
Sophie Coldwell (GBR)
Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX)
Taylor Knibb (USA)
Taylor Spivey (USA)
Kate Waugh (GBR)
Maya Kingma (NED)
Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)
Kirsten Kasper (USA)
Emma Lombardi (FRA)
Summer Rappaport (USA)
Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL)
Ainsley Thorpe (NZL)
Elite Male
Hayden Wilde (NZL)
Matthew Hauser (AUS)
Vasco Vilaca (POR)
Dorian Coninx (FRA)
Léo Bergere (FRA)
Adrien Briffod (SUI)
Jelle Geens (BEL)
Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR)
Csongor Lehmann (HUN)
Henri Schoeman (RSA)
Dylan McCullough (NZL)
Tayler Reid (NZL)
WTCS CAGLIARI
Italy - May 27, 2023
Swim 1500m | Bike 38km | Run 10km
Female Elite Male
Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)
Emma Lombardi (FRA)
Taylor Spivey (USA)
Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA)
Jeanne Lehair (LUX)
Beth Potter (GBR)
Summer Rappaport (USA)
Lisa Tertsch (GER)
Nina Eim (GER)
Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX)
Alex Yee (GBR)
Hayden Wilde (NZL)
Léo Bergere (FRA)
Dorian Coninx (FRA)
Pierre Le Corre (FRA)
Jonas Schomburg (GER)
Csongor Lehmann (HUN)
Vasco Vilaca (POR)
Kenji Nener (JPN)
Lasse Lührs (GER)
Devonport, Tasmania - March 18, 2023
Swim 750m | Bike 19.4km | Run 5km
PTVI Women
Maggie Sandles B3 (AUS)
Maria Williams B1 (NZL)
Yokohama, Jaoan - May 13
Swim 750m | Bike 19.4km | Run 4.98km
Women
Susana Rodriguez B1 (ESP)
McClain Hermes B1 (USA)
Jessica Tuomela B1 (CAN)
Deborah Chucoski B3 (USA)
Maggie Sandles B3 (AUS) Caroline Baird B3 (USA)
Williams
Hannah Howell (NZL)
Anna Lindsay (NZL)
Eva Goodisson (NZL)
Minori Ikeno (JPN)
Madison Keightley (NZL)
Juri Ide (JPN)
Herlene Natasha Yu (SGP)
Angharad Llewellyn (NZL)
Amelie Kretz (CAN)
Tünde Bukovszki (HUN)
Anna Godoy Contreras (ESP)
Marion Kim Mangrobang (PHI)
Hayden Wilde (NZL)
Tayler Reid (NZL)
Ricardo Batista (POR)
Dylan McCullough (NZL)
WORLD CUP NEW PLYMOUTH
Ngamotu Beach, New Plymouth - March 26, 2023
Triathlon.org (Organiser: World Triathlon)
Swim 750m | Bike 20km | Run 5km
Elite Female
Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL)
Ainsley Thorpe (NZL)
Solveig Løvseth (NOR)
Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX)
Sophie Linn (AUS)
Maria Tomé (POR)
Erika Ackerlund (USA)
Claire Michel (BEL)
Olivia Thornbury (NZL)
Kira Hedgeland (AUS)
Brea Roderick (NZL)
Noelia Juan (ESP)
Xinyu Lin (CHN)
Gwen Jorgensen (USA)
Costanza Arpinelli (ITA)
Beatrice Mallozzi (ITA)
Marta Pintanel Raymundo (ESP)
Cecilia Perez (MEX)
Emma Jeffcoat (AUS)
Gina Sereno (USA)
Márta Kropkó (HUN)
Therese Feuersinger (AUT)
Zsófia Kovács (HUN)
Sandra Dodet (FRA)
Meiyi Lu (CHN)
Shanae Williams (RSA)
Sara Guerrero Manso (ESP)
Erica Hawley (BER)
Jaz Hedgeland (AUS)
Roksana Slupek (POL)
Yuka Sato (JPN)
Hannah Knighton (NZL)
Hiraku Fukuoka (JPN)
Wen Wei (CHN)
Charlotte McShane (AUS)
Olivia Cummings (NZL)
Cecilia Sayuri Ramirez Alavez (MEX)
Sarika Nakayama (JPN)
Tereza Zimovjanova (CZE)
Zuzana Michalickova (SVK)
Anahi Alvarez Corral (MEX)
Noemie Beaulieu (CAN)
Brandon Copeland (AUS)
Seth Rider (USA)
Nicolò Strada (ITA)
Callum McClusky (AUS)
Tyler Mislawchuk (CAN)
Janus Staufenberg (NZL)
Arnaud Mengal (BEL)
Ben Dijkstra (GBR)
Nicola Azzano (ITA)
Rodrigo Gonzalez (MEX)
Aram Michell Peñaflor Moysen (MEX)
Makoto Odakura (JPN)
Bob Haller (LUX)
Brock Hoel (CAN)
Itamar Levanon (ISR)
Gregor Payet (LUX)
Luke Willian (AUS)
Itamar Eshed (ISR)
Irving Perez (MEX)
Aoba Yasumatsu (JPN)_
Saxon Morgan (NZL)
Benjamin Zorgnotti (TAH)
Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS)
Martin Sobey (CAN)
Lukas Pertl (AUT)
Trent Thorpe (NZL)
Alessio Crociani (ITA)
Qing Chen (CHN)
Diego Moya (CHI)
Sam Parry (NZL)
Ren Sato (JPN)
Darr Smith (USA)
Philip Pertl (AUT)
Kauê Willy (BRA)
Stefan Zachäus (LUX)
David Martin ( CZE)
Gaspar Riveros (CHI)
Austin Carter (NZL)
Erwin Vanderplancke (BEL)
Crisanto Grajales (MEX)
Junjie Fan (CHN)
Liam Donnelly (CAN)
Ivan Abele (NZL)
Tzu I Pan (TPE)
Lachlan Haycock
Marcin Stanglewicz (POL)
Oscar Dart (AUS)
Clayton Hutchins (CAN)
Roee Zoarets (ISR)
David Castro Fajardo (ESP)
Nanhe Wang (CHN)
Lucas Cambresy (LUX)
Fernando José Casares Tan (PHI)
James Corbett (NZL)
OCEANIA CUP WANAKA
Wanaka - February 17, 2023 (Organiser: Tri NZ)
Swim 750m | Bike 18km | Run 5km
Elite Female
Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL)
Brea Roderick (NZL)
Emma Jeffcoat (AUS)
Olivia Thornbury (NZL)
Hannah Knighton (NZL)
Aleisha Wesley (AUS)
Sara Guerrero Manso (ESP)
Jessica Ewart-McTigue (AUS)
Aviv Levi ISR)
Olivia Cummings (NZL)
Sarah Mcclure (NZL)
Sophie Spencer (NZL)
Victoria Gillies (AUS)
Anna Lindsay (NZL)
Ellie Hoitink (AUS)
Maddison Yarrow (AUS)
Madison Keightley (NZL)
Angharad Llewellyn (NZL)
Mikayla Messer (AUS)
Natasha Bowyer (NZL)
Emily Irvine (NZL)
Hannah Howell (NZL)
Ainsley Thorpe (NZL)
Amara Rae (NZL)
Lotte Vandekerckhove (BEL)
Elite Male
Callum McClusky (AUS)
Kyle Smith (NZL)
Tayler Reid (NZL)
Dylan McCullough (NZL)
Bradley Course (AUS)
Sam Parry (NZL)
Luke Willian (AUS)
Luke Schofield (AUS)
Janus Staufenberg (NZL)
Lachlan Haycock (NZL)
Austin Carter (NZL)
Jayden Schofield (AUS)
Henry McMecking (NZL)
James Corbett (NZL)
Alex Brackenbury (NZL)
Saxon Morgan (NZL)
Luke Scott (NZL)
Toby Powers (AUS)
Trent Thorpe (NZL)
Yoann Colin (AUS)
Oscar Dart (AUS)
Tzu I Pan (TPE)
David Martin (CZE)
Rory Thornhill (AUS)
Delian Stateff (ITA)
Jordan Rieck (AUS)
Benjamin Airey (NZL)
Lleyton Wall (AUS)
William Taylor (NZL)
Gus Marfell (NZL)
Jack Crome (AUS)
Oliver Larcombe (NZL)
Jordan Chugg (AUS)
Grayson Westgate (NZL)
Ivan Abele (NZL)
Wharewaka Point, Four Mile Bay - February 25, 2023
(Organiser: Tri NZ)
Swim 750m | Bike 19.5km | Run 5km
Elite Female
Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL)
Ainsley Thorpe (NZL)
Gwen Jorgensen (USA)
Ellie Hoitink (AUS)
Olivia Thornbury (NZL)
Sara Guerrero Manso (ESP)
Charlotte Derbyshire (AUS)
Aleisha Wesley (AUS)
Emma Jeffcoat (AUS)
Hannah Knighton (NZL)
Chloe Bateup (AUS)
Manami Iijima (GUM)
Hannah Howell (NZL)
Sarah Mcclure (NZL)
Aviv Levi (ISR)
Maddison Yarrow (AUS)
Jessica Ewart-McTigue (AUS)
Olivia Cummings (NZL)
Anna Lindsay (NZL)
Madison Keightley (NZL)
Lotte Vandekerckhove (BEL)
Victoria Gillies (AUS)
Amara Rae (NZL)
Mikayla Messer (AUS)
Angharad Llewellyn (NZL)
Eva Goodisson (NZL)
Emily Irvine (NZL)
Brea Roderick (NZL)
Sam Parry (NZL)
Lachlan Haycock (NZL)
Luke Schofield (AUS)
Jayden Schofield (AUS)
Toby Powers (AUS)
Liam Dixon (AUS)
Ivan Abele (NZL)
Delian Stateff (ITA)
Austin Carter (NZL)
Rory Thornhill (AUS)
Henry McMecking (NZL)
Yoann Colin (AUS)
David Martin (CZE)
Jordan Rieck (AUS)
Luke Scott (NZL)
Lachlan Jones (AUS)
Lleyton Wall (AUS)
Samuel Mileham (AUS)
Brooklyn Henry (AUS)
Oliver Larcombe (NZL)
Westgate
Elite Male
David Castro Fajardo (ESP)
Janus Staufenberg (NZL)
Luke Willian (AUS)
Kyle Smith (NZL)
Tayler Reid (NZL)
Dylan McCullough (NZL)
Callum McClusky (AUS)
Saxon Morgan (NZL)
Trent Thorpe (NZL)
James Corbett (NZL)
Oscar Dart (AUS)
Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL)
Jaz Hedgeland (AUS)
Charlotte Derbyshire (AUS)
Ainsley Thorpe (NZL)
Charlotte McShane (AUS)
Brea Roderick (NZL)
Aleisha Wesley (AUS)
Hannah Knighton (NZL)
Sarah Mcclure (NZL)
Zoe Clarke (AUS)
Olivia Cummings (NZL)
Hannah Howell (NZL)
Busselton, Western Australia - April 28, 2023
Swim 750m | Bike 18km | Run 5km
Elite Female
Charlotte McShane (AUS)
Jessica Ewart-McTigue (AUS)
Ellie Hoitink (AUS)
Chloe Bateup (AUS)
Rhianna Hepburn (AUS)
Sian Munks (AUS)
Aleisha Wesley (AUS)
Maddison Yarrow (AUS)
Victoria Gillies (AUS)
Briana Mow (AUS)
Angharad Llewellyn (NZL)
Natasha Bowyer (NZL)
SEVEN OAKS TRIATHLON FESTIVAL Kinloch, Taupo - February 11-12, 2023 trisporttaupo.co.nz (Organiser: Trisport Taupo)
SUZUKI NZ AQUATHLON CHAMPIONSHIP
Fitzgibbon
Angie Keen
Fallon Roy
Tamara Novak
Nicole Burgess
Helen Desai
Joy Baker
Jane Harris
Kathy Miller
Sam Parry
Finian Orr
Blake Miller
Sam Mayhew
Mike Trees
AJ Cornwall
John Forrest
Andrew Mcnally
Aniel Smith
Reuben Tucker
Olivia Rooney
Lucy Evans
Monique Spedding
Eliza Rothery
Sophie Webber
Neve Mckenzie
Dorothy Anderson
Hayley Cornwall
Millie Evans
Mila Laarakkers
Tayla Cornwall
Leah Kilmister
Mackenzie Speers
Liv Kay
Sophie Garrett
Alec Ball
Charlie Hook
Oliver Christie
Oli Barnett
Benjamin Gordon-Glassford
Xavier Christie Kian Weston
Alex Bees
Matthew Marshall
Terry Jack
Tom Burgess
Reuben Tucker
Neil Baker
Barry Herbison
Dave Bradding
Tony Reidy
Niels Madsen
Malcolm Elley
Terence O’Connell
Glendhu Bay, Wanaka - February 18, 2023
Challenge-wanaka.com (Organiser: Challenge Family)
CHALLENGE WANAKA HALF Swim 1900m | Bike 90km | Run 21.1km
Pro Female
GRACE THEK (AUS)
ELS VISSER (NED)
REBECCA CLARKE (NZL)
GEORGINA THORNTON (NZL)
DANIELLE DONALDSON (NZL)
COURTNEY GILFILLAN (AUS)
ALICE COOMBS (NZL)
EMILY MOLLOY (NZL)
ZOE MACCLURE (NZL)
EMMA SMITH (NZL)
Pro Male
JACK MOODY (NZL)
MIKE PHILLIPS (NZL)
SEBASTIAN KIENLE (GER)
CALEB NOBLE (AUS)
SAM OSBORNE (NZL)
MATT BURTON (AUS)
GUY CRAWFORD (NZL)
KIERAN STORCH (AUS)
THOMAS HEATON (NZL)
SCOTT HARPHAM (NZL)
Female Age Group
EMILY MOLLOY
ZOE MACCLURE
EMMA SMITH
MELISSA HALLIGAN
MAXI DIPPIE EMMA MEALINGS
OLIVIA ALLAN
ABBY WEBB
DANIELLE DONALDSON
LUCY ALLEN
TONI CRANKO
CHARLOTTE BAKEN
SONJA VREUGDENHIL
MORGAN SHEPHERD
CATHERINE PARATA
KELLY THOMPSON
KEELY SULLIVAN
FRANCES INVERARITY
GEORGE SEQUE
FINBAR CHESNEY
BUDDY SMALL
CAMPBELL RUSSELL
HARRY LITTIN
REUBEN CLUTTERBUCK
MARC CORMACK
AIDAN CHESNEY
NICHOLAS CHAMBERLAIN
THOMAS HEATON
JARED VAN VIANEN
EDWARD TWINN
DAMIEN LOUIS
RYAN PINNELL
FIONN FORSYTH
PETER GRIFFITHS
MATTHEW CONNOLLY
MATTHEW JENSEN
LIAM MCARTHUR
BRETT CLIFFORD
HEYNRICH DU TOIT
MORGAN LUMSDEN
MAX GAUBERT
FEDERICO ARADILLAS
SAM HUGHES
JOAQUIN BERRAL
ANGUS KERR
NICK JOHNSTON
JOAQUIN BONET
MATT SUMNER
DAVID ATKINSON
ANDREW
GLEN MCSKIMMING
JOHN MCCANN
RICK WALKER
MAURO BATTAGLIA
MARK BOTTING
MIKE HANSON
GARETH HOLEBROOK
JEREMY BYARS
MARK WATSON
JASON SKLENAR
SUSAN O’BRIEN
SARAH HEWSON
EMMA GRIBBEN
NICOLE BROWNLEE
GEERTRUI VAN DE VOORDE
NICOLA MORGAN
HOLLY DUNN
MERRYN JOHNSTON
EMMA CACHEMAILLE
DEIRDRE LACK
JANE BALDWIN
TRACEY ROSS
JULIE MACFIE
NICOLA SPROULE
CLAIRE MARTIN
KAREN BLACKWOOD
ANNETTE HUNTER
SHIRLEY JEAN ROLSTON
XANDER MARSH
DANIEL HAYES
ADAM WILSON
JASON DOBSON
LIAM MILLER
TOM O’NEILL
MATTHEW DOBSON
ALEX BEES
RICHARD FERGUSON
TANISHQ GAIDHANI
MICHAEL CROWE
MICHAEL GLYNN
BILL BLACKMORE
PETER JACKSON
KRIS MILNE
TIM RAW
BRYAN RHODES
CHRIS CHAMBERS
JOHN FARROW
MARK DINEEN
BRENT JONES
NICK HOLDSWORTH
JOHN VAN OPZEELAND
MIKE ADAIR KEVIN HUNT
TRI TARANAKI FESTIVAL
Ngamotu Beach, New Plymouth - March 26 Tritaranakifestival.nz (Organiser: SB Events)
SUZUKI NZ SPRINT CHAMPIONSHIP
Amara Rae
Georgia Waghorn
Sophie Shallard
Taylah Arlidge
Jenna Barrett
Alice Adams
Charlotte Carter
Angie Keen
Lucy McLean
Bex Grace
Lucy McLean
Juliet Harland
Violani Afoa
Georgia Waghorn
Sophie Shallard
Taylah Arlidge
Charlotte Carter
Amara Rae
Jenna Barrett
Melissa Chambers
Claudia Muller
Abigale Kewin
Meg Snowdon
Alice Adams
Julia Tilley
Hannah Goodall
Suzaan Le Roux
Olivia Bell Sarah Bentley
Savannah Young
Louisa Webber
Oonagh Turner
Helen Desai
Angela Jowitt
Tanya Lavington
Jane Loughnan
Charlaine Spencer
Tanya Winter
Julia Mutch
Bridget Ray
Joanna Godwin
Joy Baker
William Taylor
Kieran Coates
Christian Davey
Blake Miller
Ryan Marfell
Kiyohito Kondo
Ryan Williams
Ashton Upfold
Clark Ellice
Brendan Erskine
Ryan Marfell
Ashton Upfold
Conrad Visagie
Jett Curteis
Palepua Afoa
William Taylor
Blake Miller
Kiyohito Kondo
Ryan Williams
Darcy Adams
Kieran Coates
Christian Davey
Nic Sowerby
Alex Cranswick
Alex Bees
Blair Mills
Ben Wilks
Eduardo D’Leon
Christo Gilbert
Jean-Pierre Le Roux
Peter Kadar
Matt Hastings
SEVEN OAKS TRIATHLON FESTIVAL
Kinloch, Taupo - February 11-12, 2023 trisporttaupo.co.nz (Organiser: Trisport Taupo)
SUZUKI NZ SPRINT CHAMPIONSHIP
Swim
Hannah Prosser
Olivia Rooney
Charlotte Brown
Lucy Evans
Izzy Bannister
Monique Spedding
Eliza Rothery
Sophie Webber
Annise Boothroyd
Finnley Oliver
Reeve Dooney
Joshua Gordon-Glassford
Jacob D’Ath
Ashton Upfold
Alex Wilton
Ryan Nelson
Jett Curteis
Dion Wallwork
U16 SHORT COURSE TRIATHLON Swim
Neve Mckenzie
Hayley Cornwall
Mila Laarakkers
Dorothy Anderson
Tayla Cornwall
Millie Evans
Leah Kilmister
Antonia Shepherd
Sophie Garrett
Olivia Shepherd
Alec Ball
Xavier Christie
Oliver Christie
Jyde Low
Charlie Hook
Filip Martin
George Skinner
Jacob Lean
Jack Mason
Glenn Wright
Kevin Fee
Dave Scott
Shaun McCarthy
Mike Harrison
Michael Gowing
Niels Madsen
Malcolm Elley
Alan McIntyre
Fred Koenders
Shorty Clark
John Hellemans
Chris Powell
John Skinnon
Richard Sweetman
Oli Barnett
Lucy Evans (NZL)
Isabelle Bannister (NZL)
Lulu Johnson (NZL)
Olivia Rooney (NZL)
Isla Watson (AUS)
Monique Spedding (NZL)
Charlotte Brown (NZL)
Hannah Pollock (AUS)
Mia Wooldridge (AUS)
Bradley Course (AUS)
Thomas Feldmann (AUS)
Jack Crome (AUS)
Brayden Mercer (AUS)
Benjamin Airey (NZL)
Finnley Oliver (NZL)
Coen Anderson (NZL)
Cooper Lee (AUS)
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Taupo - February 25, 2023 (Incorporating Tri NZ Junior Series)
Swim 750m | Bike 19.5km | Run 5km
Female
Hannah Prosser (NZL)
Rhianna Hepburn (AUS)
Gabriella Jackson (AUS)
Sophie Spencer (NZL)
Emma Olson-Keating (AUS)
Alexandra Field (AUS)
Briana Mow (AUS)
Glendhu Bay, Wanaka - March 30, 2023 (Organiser: Southland Triathlon & Multisport Club)
Female
U12 (200mswim,6kmbike,2kmrun)
Abigail Junge (Cashmere Primary School) 29:56
Elza Harrington (The Cathedral Grammar School)
Bella McRitchie-King (Halfmoon Bay)
Teams: St Hildas 1
U13 (200mswim,6kmbike,2kmrun)
Olivia Shepherd (Taupo-nui-a-Tia College) 27:00
Sophie Archer (Saint Kentigern) 28:08
Aimee Free (Cobham) 28:25
Teams: Mt Aspiring
U14 (350mswim,10kmbike,2.5kmrun)
Sophie Lampe (St Andrews)
Millie McLean (PNGHS)
Eve Kelleher (Queens High School – Dunedin)
Teams: Wakaipu 1, Mt Aspiring 2
Mixed Teams: Central Southland College 1
U16 (500mswim,12kmbike,3.75kmrun)
Charlotte Chiles (Rangi Ruru Girls School)
Dorothy Anderson (Saint Kentigern College)
Neve McKenzie (Marlborough Girls College)
Mixed Teams: CSC 1, Menzies 2, James Hargest 3
U19 (750mswim,20kmbike,5kmrun)
Olivia Rooney (Saint Kentigern College)
Kennedy Taylor (Southland Girls High)
Isabelle Bannister (Saint Kentigern College)
Joshua Gordon-Glassford (NZL)
Ty Davis (AUS)
Xane Bowen (AUS)
Oliver Moxon (AUS)
Nicholas Rossi (AUS)
Joshua Young (NZL)
Zane Galea (AUS)
Ryan Marfell (NZL)
Jacob D’ath (NZL)
Isaac Morris (NZL)
Tristan Price (AUS)
Art Aitken (NZL)
James Kjellgren-Lewis (AUS)
Dillon Longo (CAN)
Reeve Dooney (NZL)
Gianluca Zennaro (ITA)
Dion Wallwork (NZL)
Ryan Nelson (NZL)
Jakob Cunningham (NZL)
U19 (750mswim,20kmbike,5kmrun)
Coen Anderson (Saint Kentigern College)
Reeve Dooney (Taradale High School)
Ryan Marfell (Marlborough Boys College)
Teams: Columba 1, Timaru Girls High School 2
Mixed Teams: CSC 1
Male
U12 (200mswim,6kmbike,2kmrun)
Hugo Skerman (Huntley School)
Cruz Webb (Huntley School)
Vadim Pulin (Hillview Christian School)
U13 (200mswim,6kmbike,2kmrun)
Oliver McGuinness (Saint Kentigern College)
Alex Cosgriff (Waihi School)
Ben Lough (Burnside High School)
Teams: Waihi 1, Rosebank 2, Mt Aspiring 3
U14 (350mswim,10kmbike,2.5kmrun)
Filip Martin (PNBHS)
Flynn Balfour (PNBHS)
Kian Weston (Taupo-nui-a-Tia College)
Teams: Hillview Christian School 1
U16 (500mswim,12kmbike,3.75kmrun)
Alec Ball (Fielding High School)
Caleb Wagener (Auckland Grammar School)
Ollie Aitken (HSNZ)
Teams: Otago Boys High School 1
Teams: Otago Boys High School 1, Waiaki Boys High 2
Huntley School
Hillview Christian School
Cobham/Hillview
Waihi/Huntley
Huntley School
PNGHS/PNBHS
Cashmere High/Christs College
Hillview Christian School
Palmerston North Boys’ High School
Taupo-nui-a-Tia College
Fielding High School
Saint Kentigern College
Rangi Ruri Girls School
Saint Kentigern College
Hillview/Chrischurch Intermediate
Lucy Evans
Olivia Rooney
Monique Spedding
Hannah Prosser
Lulu Johnson
Izzy Bannister
Sophie Spencer
Renee Carey
Charlotte Brown
Eliza Rothery
Dorothy Anderson
Jessie Coxon
Benjamin Airey
Finnley Oliver
Joshua Gordon-Glassford
Jacob D’Ath
Coen Anderson
Reeve Dooney
Ryan Nelson
Art Aitken
Ashton Upfold
Joshua Young
Ryan Marfel
Isaac Morris
Alex Wilton
Jett Curteis
Ethan James
Quinn Boyle
Lucas Reed
Cameron Maunder
Neve McKenzie
Mila Laarakkers
Leah Kilmister
Tayla Cornwall
Charlotte Chiles
Sophie Webber
Millie Evans
Dorothy Anderson
Sophie Garrett
Hayley Cornwall
Jessica Bray
Liv Kay
Holly Bishop
Melanie Button
Zoe Tack
Gemma Sitjes
Charlotte Herzberg
Annemarie Wiedow
Casey Shaw-Stranks
Nevaeh Reddy
Kristy Donovan
Nisha Moorefield
Anotonia Shepherd
Sophie Loader
Millie Banbury
Mackenzie Speers
Olivia Shepherd
Victoria Barrett
Brooke Speers
Abbie Pettersson
Paige Dobson
Bianca Stewart
Pipi Hunter
Josie Murphy
Tessa Davis
Alec Ball
Xavier Christie
Charlie Hook
Jyde Low
Jacob Lean
Oli Barnett
Oli Aitkin
Benjamin
GordonGlassford
Isaac Morris
Connor Kemp
Caleb Wagener
Oliver Christie
Tom Newsom
George Skinner
Eliot Webber
Sam Mchale
Connor Walsh
Alex Bishop
Ben Archer
Noah Wright
Tarn Currie
Kohai Schmit
Harry Hiatt
Oscar Skinner
Toanui Tanetoa
Sam Ruthe
Oliver Lean
Cam Gordon
Kyran Moyle
Kian Weston
Filip Martin
Judd Brown
Jack Mason Nikko
Taupo - March 4, 2023
Ironman.com/IM-New-Zealand (Organised by IRONMAN Oceania)
| Run 42.2km
Hannah BERRY
Rebecca CLARKE
Meredith KESSLER
Ai Ueda
Laura ARMSTRONG
Laura BEANLAND-STEPHENS
Hannah MARTIN
Laura WOOD
Natalie SUTTON
Mike PHILLIPS
Braden CURRIE
Jan VAN BERKEL
Sebastian KIENLE
Matt KERR
Simon COCHRANE
Cameron BROWN
Matt JACKSON
Lucas DUROSS
Levi HAUWERT
華子 日引
Emily COOK
Laura BEANLAND-STEPHENS
Hannah MARTIN
Aleisha WILLIAMS
Kelly EGAN
Jaycee Amos
Kelsi Millar
Angela HARRISON
Bethany WARD
Kirsty CAMERON
Jaime-Marie MACFIE
Natalie SUTTON
Camilla Lyttle
Mizuki HIRAYANAGI
Gabrielle RONEY
Florence LOADER
Marissa Rose JUDKINS
Jordan HOUSTON
Jen Hale
Paige McRobie-Casson
Larissa Just
Ling Er CHOO
Kylie BROWN
Susie WILKINSON
Tamsin BROWNE
Meredith GARDNER
Liane DOWLING
Charlie READ
Helen BREMER
Emma Roche
Jenny WEIGT
Anthea OLIVER
Rebecca CAMPBELL
Katrina Shores
Thea DAVIES
Erika LILLEY
Shiri Friedler
Carrie LABANI
Jan BURDEKIN
Kylie SCHOLZ
Jennie ELLIOTT
Cat CONLAN
Mieko OCHSNER
Rachael Cunningham
Kate Brown
Margot SOUTHGATE
Marina NOLA
Sarah POPLAR
Kristen DENNIS
Sarah CHAMBERS
Anna Turnseck-James
Susie HEATH
Luana COX
Christine O’BRIEN
Charlotte PORTER
Akiko ITO
Regina Lombard
Melanie STONE
Nicola SHARPE
Laurika HAZELHURST
Jo BRAITHWAITE
Jane BALDWIN
Linda EXETER-GRANT
Julia CREE
Larissa Wildsmith
Nicola SPROULE
Tanikawa MAYUKO
Tanya LAVINGTON
Keri Houston
Sonia ARTHUR
Julie MORGAN
Amanda BARLOW
Lee-Anne YOUNG
Miki SASAKI
Linda COLLARD
Lynette Itani
Elizabeth MODEL
Susan Chester
Te Aroha WAITOA
Barb CARSON
Liz JONES
Sandra WENDEL
Ryota KONNO
Sam KEATS
Andrej FUSCIC
Reimei FUJITA
Josh FRASER
Sam Lissaman
Luke Davis
Kazuhisa SAURA
Akira IKEKAME
Yuji HIKICHI
Oliver LAWS
Glenn STRUTT
Nicolas Morel
Adam HILLIS
Werner Malan
James Walton
Jason DOBSON
Joe SCOTT
Sam CLARKE
Matt MORLEY
Chris WILKINSON
Matthew Wood
Kazuki KUBONO
Joel BARRY
Daniel BARRY
Lukasz Skrzypiec
Joris Gevaert
Stephen REVILLE
Dónal McGoldrick
Alex Cranswick
Matt JACKSON
Brent KNIGHT
Jack HAMBLETON
Taihei KAMIYA
Steven DAVISON
Martin Tresca
Nick SAUNDERS
Lee GREER
Luiz Mauro GROHS
Adriano PAVIA
Peter FITZWEIJERS
Moss BURMESTER
Richard CAMPBELL
Nathan Martin
Gerhard Maritz
David OLIVER
Mark THOMPSON
Scott BURRISS
Carl Ward
Carl READ
Steven MILLER
Cam WASLEY
Nicholas GILL
Leith AUSTIN
Nic KAY
Grégoire Sauvé
Peter Brozicevich
Adam POWERS
Mubarak Alwoqayan
Mark SISSONS
Reon PARK
Dean GALT
Brendan ERSKINE
Kipsan Beck
Chris Clarke
Carl ROSE
Ian Graham
Kyle HUGHES
Darren YOUNG
Billy Harkin
Steve Dean
Jason HIEBERT
David DYER
Emile Boey ALAM
Christian STULZ
Richard HINE
Roy BRUNNING
Richard PARKE
Steve CROSSLEY
Aaron JAMIESON
Stewart MCROBIE
Robin BROWN
Murray WALLS
Keith PARKER
Thomas SULLIVAN
Leon RUTTERSMITH
Mike BALL
Shaun MCCARTHY
Ian KITCHING
Roger WINTON
Hirofumi Hayama
Niels MADSEN
Ian Gibbs
Gregory OGILVIE
Tom NICKELS
Bing Liu
Kevin Rae HENDERSON
Matt O’Neill
Martyn FINCH
Mike Bush
Tony CAULFIELD
Paul Kelly
Andrew GORDON
Satoshi ISHIHARA
Masaru SUZUKI
Shinichi MURANAKA
Taupo - March 4, 2023
Ironman.com/IM-New-Zealand (Organised by IRONMAN Oceania)
Swim 1900m | Bike 90km | Run 21.1km
Female Age Group
Ally TAYLOR
Charlotte HALL
Charlotte GILLESPIE
Harriet WATSON
Meg THOMAS
Maddie MITCHELL
Summer SMITH
Madison MONTGOMERY
Elise NYSSE
Milli NIXON
Oiivia RITCHIE
Hannah MAHER
Grace ANDERSON
Sarah GORMAN
Rebecca HARPER
Jess LUSBY
Abbey MULLIN
Elizabeth COLLINGS
Sophie COUPER
Gemma O’CONNELL
Emily PACE
Cassie WAY
Alicea BURNS
Gemma KENNEDY
Maddie RUSCOE
Alana STRETTON
Daisy CHRISTIE
Jordan O’NEILL
Catherine CLARKE
Leah BRENNAN
Mathilde BATAILLER
Kate MOORE
Kristin HEWITT
Amanda CATHRO
Bianca CORNEY
Ayaka SUZUKI
Larisa COCHRANE
Kim TURNER
Shreya ARMSTRONG
Hayley ANDERSON
Nikki EDWARDS
Sierra RYLAND
Kate WATKINS
Ellie BOWEN
Emma CACHEMAILLE
Nicole NIEHUES
Tracey ROSS
Lee WHITE
Katie KORTMAN
Charlotte DAKER
Corinna ATKINSON
Simone ROBBERS
Donna MACDONALD
Wendy JESSUP
Ginny MOWAT
Melissa HARRIS
Trish LONGO
Andrea BUNN
Tara LLOYD
Rachel MCCULLOCH
Liz HAYES
Liz WICKHAM
Lisa VASS
Vicki FLEMING
Suzanne BRANFORD
Christina CORNHILL
Sam THOMPSON
Jackie WATTS
Angela MARTIN
Maria JONES
Catherine ALDERTON
Sharon ROOSE
Barb ANDREWS
Marlies ANDERSON
Louise RICKARD
Naoko SUGAMA
Kate SMALLMAN
Michele ALLISON
Lauren HANN
Gayle KAIWAI
Male Age Group
Ben HAMILTON
Dillon LONGO
Shaun WOODS
Luke DONALDSON
Harrison LLOYD
James DONOVAN
Hamish BUTLER
Taine THOMPSON
Tom CURD
Tanishq GAIDHANI
Thomas HEATON
Cameron VAUGHAN
Damien LARDNER
Bailey ATKINSON
Jarrad DAVIS
Blake HAWES
Trent RIPPEY
Ollie BRAZIER
Tom WILLIAMS
Kamil RAHMAN
Thomas KEARNS
Logan RODGER
Thorstenson JAMES
Alex MACKENZIE
Federico ARADILLAS
Stuart ELAND
Jono PARKER
Jeremy BLAKE
Matthew BRUNT
Jared POUWHARE
Mark ESSELINK
Marinho BARCELLOS
Tim ROBINSON
Andrew BALSILLE
Ronnie CAMPBELL
Trevor MILLEN
Bruce HUTCHISON
Nick WEALLEANS
Kyle WELCH
Coen VAN SCHIJNDEL
Dave SCOTT
Shane LYE
Roger SPICE
David CASELLI
Benjamin LEE
Tony KING
Kevin CAMPBELL
Brett MEYER
Phil DAVIES
Nathan LIVINGSTONE
Alan HARTLEY
Brian CHANDLER
Andrew COX
Andrew MCCULLOCH
Peter WILKINSON
Jonathan GRAY
Luigi MATTIOLI
Anthony DOWD
Davy ROSSEEL
Eric WATTEZ
Glen MCSKIMMING
Gerard GORDON
David MATTSON
Steve SWALLOW
Mike WOODD
Luke FERGUSON
Mark HOWARD
Danny PAXTON
Michael HANSON
Robert LOVERIDGE
Nick HEGAN
Cor STORY
Malcolm ELLEY
Paul BERRY
Dave DWAN
Grant JEFFREYS
Alan FLETCHER
Grant TROLLOPE
John REYNOLDS
Leonid BOGUSLAVSKY
Michael TUROCZY
Max O’KANE
Paul RODWAY
NB: While every effort is taken to record accurate information, Tri NZ accepts no responsibility for results recorded incorrectly or sent in error.
Janus Staufenberg finished an impressive 27th on WTCS debut at the World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championships in July, making it through to the top 30 shoot-out in Hamburg via a gritty repechage performance.
It’s a picture for the ages capturing a moment in time that Hayden Wilde – and Tayler Reid – will cherish forever. Not long after Nicole van der Kaay and Ainsley Thorpe’s gold-silver in the elite women’s race, Wilde and Reid made it another memorable Kiwi one-two at World Cup New Plymouth on March 26.
