While the juniors enjoyed a well earned rest day following their individual races at States on the Friday and backing that up with the teams race on the Saturday, the rest of us made our way out to Raby Bay to compete in race 6 of the Queensland Triathlon Series. And while the race wasn't of particular significance, with the much talked about and anticipated Devonport Triathlon only 2 weeks into the distance this was the race to fine tune our performances.
Both open fields drew a number of the big players, in particular Olympic hopeful Emma Jackson lining up in the womens field along side Sarah Deuble and Anna Coldham representing DAT. On the mens side of things it was one of the biggest open fields in some time with some of us forced to encroach on the womens and teams bike racking space in transition. DAT was strongly represented with myself, Ryan Fisher, Tom Ryan, Brayden Tucker and Luke Farrell hitting the startline along with Jack Hickey, Bryce McMaster, Jesse Featonby, Matt Brown, Mitch Kealey and recently crowned Australian champion; Drew Box.
But before we even had the opportunity to get down to business it was the stars of the future who were first to dive into the Raby Bay waterways. Both Josh and Hayden Buerckner were representing DAT and after putting on such fine performances in recent times, both boys stepped up to compete in the 7-9yrs division. Josh finished a very impressive 7th position and posted the 2nd fastest run split in a very speedy 01:57 while Hayden finished only 01:10 behind his brother in 13th position and is one of the few people I have seen with a smile on his face no matter how fast or hard he is going!
Moving onto the main event, which was due to be held over the supersprint distance of a 400m swim, 15km cycle and 4km run and with the combination of such short distances and the quality of the field, it was bound to be a fierce race right from the beginning. With the usual current of Raby Bay drifting the boys some 10-15m forward of the start line before the starters eventually got us underway, the swim was over in the blink of an eye and while the first pack contained not only all the DAT boys but all the main players, it was none other than Ryan Fisher leading the way. Heading off onto the bike there was a distinct DAT influence in the front pack with Ryan heading the field followed closely by Brayden, Tom, myself and Luke. However, this didn't last long and as we rounded the corner to head up the hill on the first lap Ryan hit the corner with too much speed and found himself very quickly hitting the pavement with some force. Fortunately the damage was limited and although he was restricted to a single gear for the remainder of the ride, full credit must be given for not only finishing the race but posting one of the fastest run splits for the day.
Unfortunately he wasn't the only DAT casualty for the ride and on the same corner on the next lap Tom suffered the same outcome. Similarly he battled on gallantly and while not in the hunt for podium positions after his fall still finished strongly within the top 10 in a quality field.
His fall did however come at an opportunistic time for myself as I took the opportunity to test the other guys legs and push the pace and found myself with a small yet noticable gap once I'd reached the top of the hill. Knowing the running speed of some of the guys in the pack I took this opportunity to try and make the most of my opportunity and although I sat off the front for the remainder of the ride, it was always going to be a task to hold off what can only be described as a pack with no draft busters in sight and within reach of the dismount line I may have been at the front but my advantage was cut to a handful of seconds. It is hard to keep secrets in this sport and the running speed of several of the top boys at the moment is no exception and this was evident as soon as we hit the run. Jesse immediately surged to the froont and with only 4km to travel looked to have the race locked up from an early stage. The other podium places went to Mitch Kealey and Matt Brown who had earlier been in a tussle for position with Brayden who narrowly missed out to finish in 5th position followed by myself in 6th position with Luke Farrell rounding out the DAT athletes in 8th position.
On the womens side of things it was always going to be a tough ask to topple Emma Jackson and she showed her class from the outset, hitting the front soon after the swim and never looked back to record an impressive win. However we did manage to snare the final spot on the womens podium with Sarah Deuble running an impressive race to finish narrowly behind second place getter Chloe Turner. The misfortune of the DAT athletes didn't end with just the 2 boys crashing out with the only girl to be in front of Emma at any stage in the race and swim leader, Maddi Allen suffering the same fate on the bike, although she did manage to navigate the boys corner, instead coming undone going around the round about. Anna Coldham didn't have the luck on her side either and was dealt a 3min drafting penalty and can be considered somewhat unlucky after not only what occured during the mens race but from all accounts the womens race as well as she was one of three athletes handed out penalties who actually served her penalty before finishing with a strong run.
Not to be outdone by the high performance athletes, Jamie Hanelt also tackled the Raby Bay course and was somewhat chuffed with himself after consultation with his personal timing devise to find he had recorded a very impressive sub-16min 4km. However as could be expected, official timing puts him just off this mark with a 4:01/km average and a 16:04 total. Never the less this still placed him in 6th position in his age.
While the misfortune can be looked at as the story of the day for the DAT team from Raby Bay, everyone can take something away from the performances and it is fair to say that things are well and truly on track to peak for the race of the season down in Devonport in 10 days time.
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