Ellie Salthouse wins Shimano Husky Women’s Australia Triathlon Championship

2021 saw one of the strongest and deepest female fields ever seen at Elite Energy’s Huskisson long course triathlon. Over the years we have seen many of our best female long course triathletes racing here but never this depth or strength.

The conditions were stunning with the swim in lake like conditions. Right from the gun Ellie Salthouse went about stamping her authority on the race. Right with her in the swim was former ITU world champion Annabel Luxford. Since her time at the top of the world Luxford has focused on career, had a baby, and dealt with living in Melbourne during COVID.

Salthouse and Luxford but well over a minute in a chase pack of eight women who were strung out but in touch with each other.

The Huskisson swim to bike transition is a long one with the chase pack spreading out further because of this.

The first 19kms of the bike saw Salthouse and Luxford staying in touch and keeping the ever-present Amelia Watkinson at bay. Luxford managed to get some ground on the field late in the bike only to be pulled back by Salthouse while both still had an edge over Watkinson.

Always on the mind of the two women leading the race was that Amelia Watkinson is a strong runner. All three were putting time on the rest of the field and it was clear that it was going to come down to a three woman race.

With around seven minutes on the field both Ellie Salthouse and Annabel Luxford set out on the run with Watkinson close behind.

At the 5km turnaround Salthouse was now in a commanding position with Luxford around 45 secs behind and Watkinson starting to make her way towards second place. By the halfway mark Watkinson was down to 40 seconds behind Luxford 1:16 up the road. Similarly to the men’s race the 10-12.5km mark saw some big moves. Watkinson had now caught and passed Luxford. By the far turnaround Amelia Watkinson was now 1;30 behind Ellie Salthouse and pushing hard to level no questions unanswered.

Salthouse got a glimpse of the gap to Watkinson after the far turn which gave her the incentive to bury the competition and take out the Australian Triathlon Championship and the top prize.