Brendan Sexton, Emma Jackson and Bill Chaffey headline Elwood OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup
London Olympians Brendan Sexton and Emma Jackson and four-time ITU World Paratriathlon champion Bill Chaffey will headline Sunday's Gatorade Triathlon Series events at Melbourne's Elwood Beach. Sexton and Jackson will line up in the OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup, incorporating the Aus
Sexton and Jackson will line up in the OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup, incorporating the Australian Sprint Championships (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run).
Chaffey will be among a field of Australia’s Elite Paratriathletes creating a slice of history in the first ever ITU World Paratriathlon Event conducted outside the ITU World Paratriathlon Championships.
OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup
Where: Elwood Beach, Melbourne
When: Sunday, February 16, 2014
Course: Course and Venue Maps
Start Times: Elite Male (8:20am) Elite Female (8:22am)
Distance (Sprint):
750m SWIM (One lap) – Beach wave starts, rectangular swim within Elwood Beach; 20km BIKE (Two laps) “Flat, fast out-and-back course along picturesque Beach Road;
5km RUN (One lap) “Flat, out and back course along beach path.
Ones to watch:
MALES: Brendan Sexton (AUS), Dan Wilson (AUS), Peter Kerr (AUS), Brian Keane (IRL)
FEMALES: Emma Jackson (AUS), Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI), Ai Ueda (JPN), Ellen Pennock (CAN)
PHOTOS: Event photos will be available upon request
MALE PREVIEW: After an up-and-down 2013 “Wollongong Wizard” Brendan Sexton is off and running, chasing form, podium finishes and those all important ITU points to get his international career back on track. He certainly started the season off well with a third in the recent ITU Oceania Sprint Championships in Kinloch (NZL) behind Kiwi pair Ryan Sissons and Tony Dodds. Expect a good showing from a revitalised 2013 ITU London World Championship team member and recent Caloundra Triathlon winner Dan Wilson, Victoria’s own Peter Kerr and a host of Australians including Ryan Fisher, Jamie Huggett, Joel Tobin-White and Jesse Featonby along with Irishman Brian Keane
FEMALE PREVIEW: London Olympic debutant and former Under 23 world champion Emma Jackson, has started her season in glowing form, winning the Caloundra Triathlon followed by a stunning win in the Queensland 5000m State Title last weekend and will be going all out to put in a solid showing, despite her heavy training load. She faces a small but select field including Chile’s two-time Olympian and 2011 ITU World Sprint Champion Barbara Riveros Diaz who in fact beat Jackson in that event in Lausanne in 2011. Japan’s two-time Olympian and current ITU World Duathlon Champion Ai Ueda will also present some tough opposition, as will her training partner Jillian Backhouse and Australian-based Canadian Ellen Pennock.
Keep tabs on: Kelly Ann Perkins, the former champion surf lifesaving competitor and professional Ironwoman, originally from the Sunshine Coast, now a member of the Triathlon Australia National Talent Academy on the Gold Coast aiming to transfer her talents to triathlon. Should be near the front in the swim.
ITU World Paratriathlon
Where: Elwood Beach, Melbourne
When: Sunday, February 16, 2014
Course: Course and Venue Maps
Start Times: Elite Males and Females (8:26am)
Distance (Sprint):
750m SWIM (One lap) – Beach wave starts, rectangular swim within Elwood Beach; 20km BIKE (Two laps) “Flat, fast out-and-back course along picturesque Beach Road;
5km RUN (One lap) “Flat, out and back course along beach path.
Ones to watch:
MALES: Sitting – Bill Chaffey (AUS); Vision Impaired – Jonathon Goerlach (AUS); Standing Justin Godfrey (AUS)
FEMALES: Vision impaired – Lindy Hou (AUS); Standing – Claire McLean (AUS); Standing “Sally Pilbeam (AUS).
PHOTOS: Event photos will be available upon request
MALE PREVIEW: All eyes will again focus of Australia’s four-time ITU World Champion Bill Chaffey (Tri 1 for Sitting athletes) from the Gold Coast, who will be among 13 Elite Male Paratriathletes contesting this breakthrough Paratriathlon sprint race. Chaffey added World title number four in London last year, coming from a seemingly impossible position to haul in the leader in the closing stages. But he will be joined in the Sitting class by triple Paralympian and two-time Paralympic gold medallist from the track, spina-bifida suffer Richard Colman (Gold in Athens 2004 and London 2012 over 800m) and cyclist Alex Welsh. Wollongong’s Canberra-based vision impaired athlete (Tri 6) Jonathon Goerlach is on track to put himself in the frame for Rio with an outstanding performance at the recent Australian and Oceania Championships in Penrith while Albury’s Justin Godfrey (Tri 5) has also shown his amazing ability to convert his sporting talents to triathlon after losing his leg following complications from a motorbike accident.
FEMALE PREVIEW: WA’s Claire McLean, Australia’s 2004 Athens Paralympic cycling silver medallist and World Championship medallist has made the transfer to Paratriathlon with flying colours, winning bronze in the Tri 4 (arm impaired) category at the 2012 ITU World Championships in Auckland and her recent impressive Tri 4 victory in the ITU Oceania Championships in Penrith. Claire’s Athens team mate and silver and bronze medallist from Beijing, vision impaired cyclist-turned-triathlete Lindy Hou has also captured the imagination of the triathlon world with her inspirational switch.
