Trizone Spoke to Brendan Sexton as he Prepares for this Weekend’s Gatorade Triathlon Series in Victoria

Trizone spoke to one of Australia’s top Olympic distance triathletes, Brendan Sexton, as he prepares for this weekend’s Gatorade Series in Victoria.

Brendan had two amazing wins at the recent Nepean Triathlon at Penrith, NSW and won the first round of Super Sprint’s Gatorade Series. This weekend he has Jamie Huggett and Peter Kerr again hoping to take first place from him.

At this stage of the year the Gatorade Series is about training for Brendan. “It’s a quality session in a real race scenario. I use the short, high quality competition to experiment and get feedback from current training. It’s also about getting some racing in the local area. With most of my major races overseas I value being able to have some fun at home and get some local exposure for sponsors.

In the last race Brendan won comfortably. This weekend’s race should be a bit tighter with Peter Kerr and Jamie Huggett racing. “I think it will come down to who feels good on the day. The first round of the Gatorade wasn’t won as comfortably as it looked. Pete gave us all a good scare getting out of the swim ahead by himself and Jamie stuck with me like glue for the majority of the run despite my constant surges and attacks. There are also some talented young guys getting around Melbourne who on a good day could knock us off.

You recently won the two races at the Nepean Triathlon. You were up against some formidable opponents. Tell us a little about the race. My result at Nepean was a bit of a surprise. I was in the middle of a break from structured training and went into the race with little expectation. My international campaign had ended only two weeks beforehand so I guess I had maintained my fitness and the rest had freshened me up for the race. I had also spent some time in Florida which was quite warm, similar to the conditions on the morning. I was lucky to not lose too much time to Clayton Fettell and other strong swim/riders. I felt good in the heat on the run and went out solid before settling into a sensible pace knowing Pete Jacobs would be moving well not far back. I was happy to hold on and keep my distance.

Did you enjoy the Super Sprint race after the main race at Nepean? “The Super Sprint is my favourite style of racing. It’s intense, unrelenting and unpredictable. There should be more of these races at our level. It’s fun for us and, hopefully, it’s entertaining for everyone else. The Nepean organisers had great initiative putting on such a race and did a great job staging it. I hope it was received well by the crowd and can continue in the future”.

Brendan winning the Super Sprint race at Nepean Triathlon

What are you plans for 2011? Next year is all about London. Everything I do from now until the start of the Olympic Games is designed around being on the team and racing to my potential in 2012. This will be based around certain ITU races and targeted Aussie comps. It seems a long way off but when you look at the big picture it is just around the corner”

We wish Brendan the best for this weekend and look forward to following his road to London 2012.