What an action packed weekend of racing Mooloolaba has yet again given us! With DAT athletes represented in almost every event over the weekend including the 5km fun run on the Friday evening, the Saturday morning superkidz triathlon and ocean swim and the main events; the Mooloolaba individual and teams triathlon and the ITU Continental Cup. The only event where we didn't field any competitors were both the male and female ITU World Cup with the unfortunate late withdrawl of Ryan Fisher from the men's field so he can recover from a hip strain in time to be on the start line for the ITU World Series race in Sydney. But with some of the results over the weekend (mainly Sarah Deuble's breakthrough victory in the ITU Continental Cup) it won't be long before DAT is apparent in these fields as well.
After searching through the USM results pages, reading everyones facebook and twitter updates and hearing stories that have been passed along in the days since the race I've managed to put together a highlights reel from the weekend of racing. But I will take the precautionary measure of apologising in advance if I have missed anyone!
With the festival beginning on the Friday, there was considerable concern being shown by all involved after the deluge of rain and flash flooding that was all over the news from the Thursday but upon arriving in Mooloolaba Friday lunchtime there was little to no sign of the previous days events and the show would go on without fault. As has become somewhat of a tradition with recent Mooloolaba and Noosa triathlons, a group of the high performance athletes pooled our savings to book ourselves a hotel room that has previously been referred to as the DAT Dungeon but with myself, Tom Ryan, Angus Gibson, Sarah Deuble, Elyza Codner, Emily Bevan and Holly Grice on top of our organisation skills we took it upon ourselves to rename it the DAT Penthouse with the ocean views of the 7th level of the Newport Hotel being our place of residence for the weekend.
Unfortunately I wasn't present for the first event of the weekend, the 5km fun run due to what many athletes competing in the ITU Continental Cup would describe as a rather unorganised race briefing raising more questions and concerns than providing answers but to the credit of USM Events our race, like everything USM put on ran without fault. Tackling the tough 5km circuit from DAT Racing was one of our youngest members, Josh Buerckner and his father Craig. Although not at the pointy end of the 16:12 ran by the winner of the U16 division, at the ripe age of 10, Josh recorded a very slick 23:55 and while I would say he is hot on his fathers heels, after looking up the results to see Craig's 26:44 I think it is going to be the other way around for some time!
Josh's busy weekend schedule didn't end there as he backed up the following morning to compete in the Superkidz Triathlon in the canal beside Underwater World. While many of us were battling the blustery conditions on our morning spin before our big day, Josh was joined by his younger sibling Hayden and fellow DAThlete stars of the future Lawrence Sangster and Caleb Madders to do battle and were presented with their finishers medals at the finish line by Olympic hopefuls Emma Jackson and Ashleigh Gentle. Even after their racing schedule, energy levels were still high and come Sunday afternoon when many of us were ready for a well earned rest, these kids were still hot on each others heels racing up and down the hill of Mooloolaba behind the DAT tent.
Shortly after the Superkidz Triathlon the action turned to Mooloolaba Beach for the ocean swim and while most of us were present to get in our swim to check out the conditions before tomorrow, many of us left the racing to the swimmers. Not one to shy away from a swimming challenge, Maddi Allan toed the start line and finished in 3rd place in the open womens field in a very slick 13:07. Priscilla Sangster also tackled the challenging 1km course to finish 15th in the 13-15yr girls category.
In order to minimise unnecessary rambling I will skip by the World Cup events except to say that both were very impressive races to witness and even better was seeing Erin Densham destroy the womens field on the run and stamp herself as a firm threat for one of those two remaining Olympic positions and I can't wait to witness both the mens and womens races down in Sydney with the remaining Olympic positions still on the line for the Australian athletes.
Moving on to the main event and the Sunday race; the day began at a very early 3:45am for myself and the majority of my room mates for the weekend because as my parents are very quick to remind me, I can't do anything quietly that early in the morning! But with a 6:35am start time there was little mucking around and before we knew it we were all lined up on the beach and awaiting the starters orders. Unfortunately for myself my current run of top form in training again eluded me on race day and after poor results in Geelong and Devonport I can now add Mooloolaba to that list and has left me searching for ways to convert my training performances into race results and as you could probably guess, the sooner the better! I was joined in the ITU Continental Cup by both Brayden Tucker and Luke Farrell, racing his first continental cup after recieving notice his pro-licence application had been successful earlier in the week. Both boys were well positioned after the swim and bike to be with the main group and out on the run managed to hold their own with Brayden finishing 20th with Luke not far behind in 24th.
Without doubt the most impressive performance of the day has to go to Sarah Deuble. After failing to finish her first continental cup only two weeks earlier down in Devonport, Sarah completely turned that around to show the triathlon world what she is truly capable of. In a field that contained former Olympians and numerous Australian elite, U23 and junior elite representitives, Sarah outclassed all of them in a performance that brought tears to her mothers eyes. Sitting comfortably in the front pack on the bike and managing to stay out of trouble in the rain and avoiding a crash mid-way through, Sarah surged to the front mid-way through the run and never looked back. With a very impressive 36:25 10km run split, Sarah crossed the line close to 1-minute clear of second place to claim her first major elite victory and I'm sure greatly enjoyed standing on top of the podium to hear the national anthem, a moment she won't forget any time soon!
The run of top performances didn't stop there with Tom Ryan claiming second position in the open mens field and pushing himself to the limit, so much so that he was again placed on a drip to aid his recovery immediately after crossing the finish line. Maddi backed up her third place from the ocean swim to finish fourth in the open womens field and even more impressive is the fact she led this field out of the water by a minute and a half! Angus Gibson also claimed second position in the 16-19yr division after narrowly missing the victory in a sprint finish and after racing both Thursday and Friday showed great determination to perform so well. In the 20-24yr female division Courtney Dutton continued her run of impressive form to claim victory and the national age-group national championship but with her sights set firmly on Sydney in three weeks time, who knows what she is capable of there! In the same category Elyza Codner finished 24th and is ever closer to making that Australian team for the World Championships. As I have reported from both Geelong and Devonport, Robbie Mullins is on the continual improvement and after improving after both Geelong and Devonport, we wouldn't expect anything less than a better result again and with an overall time of 2:10:10 and finishing 22nd I think we can all say, "Job well done!"
In the always competitive battle between Dave Kelly, Dave Sangster, Dave Mcdonald and Simon Leeper, it was Dave Sangster who claimed the victory by finishing in 8th position in his age group in a time of 2:09:46 (look out Dave, you are Robbie's next target and he is closing quickly!). Simon Leeper narrowly piped Dave Kelly in a time of 2:15:01 and 2:15:39 respectively to finish 11th and 14th with Dave Mcdonald hot on their heels in what I have been made aware was a lot shorter preparation period and still clocked a very impressive 2:16:21. How close these guys seem to always finish race and race continues to amaze me and seeing them storming down the hill and past the DAT tent towards the finish line is an impressive sight! In other results, Jamie Hanelt finished in a time of 2:13:38, Rob Murdoch finished in a time of 2:30:07, Kate Gibney finished in a time 2:31:25, Meg Boland finished with a time of 3:02:09 and Geoff Lemmon finished in 8th position in his age group in a time of 2:26:14 but I doubt many of his competitors can claim to being able to match many of the younger competitors in the dancing department as Geoff danced his race away with us all at the Wharf Tavern into the early hours of the morning! Rob Buzacott finished incredibly well in a time of 2:33:11 to claim the bronze medal in his category. And in the Madders household it is safe to say that Craig is on chores duty for some time after he was defeated by Sharyn who posted a very slick time of 2:20:37 to finish in third position compared to Craig's 2:29:12.
I do apologize to anyone I missed but that is a wrap on the racing side of things for another year at Mooloolaba. The key word is on the racing side of things because the weekend didn't end there and after the presentations wrapped up, the Wharf Tavern was converted to the official after party and we were special enough to have our our VIP area set up courtesy of resident DJ, Jamie Hanelt. Stories were told, drinks were shared and with no sign of any angry dragons or stunned wombats, a very enjoyable evening was had by all to bring the 2012 Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival to conclusion!
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