The dilemmas involved in travelling to compete in a triathlon often involve that last minute panic of fitting everything in your bike bag, packing and re-packing to make sure you’re under the weight limit and of course getting that thing through the airport without taking out every sign or person who happens to get in your way, and that’s before you’ve even boarded the plane!
For the contingent of DAT athletes making the journey down to Sydney for the opening round of the ITU World Series and the final round of the Australian Triathlon Series this is part of what they would have had to tackle but for myself, Holly Grice, Anna Coldham and Brayden Tucker it was a rare opportunity to travel without our bikes and enjoy ourselves down in Sydney for the weekend. I would include Dan Atkins in this list but after the amount of running around he did making sure every one of the DAT athletes was ready to go for the race it was probably far from relaxing until the last athlete crossed that finish line on Sunday morning!
It was perhaps our largest contingent of age-group athletes with a total of ten making the most of the final opportunity to collect valuable points for World Championship selection. We also had DAT’s very own Ryan Fisher making his World Series debut in a field containing 70 of the world’s best triathletes and with many countries using the race as Olympic selection it was always going to be a fierce battle out there.
While racing was far from my mind for the weekend, training was still involved but when the location for our Friday afternoon swim; North Sydney Olympic Pool gave us the opportunity to see Luna Park, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House all from the pool deck who could complain!
Although the elite women were off and racing early Saturday morning I’ll admit that like many of you I was watching from the comfort of my hotel room and I can only hope that this kind of live coverage on OneHD continues for the remainder of the season, especially with Ryan set to tackle the third round in Madrid which happens to be on the same night as the DAT Awards Night! But I did eventually make my way down to Sydney Harbour
The men were up next and even though I was only on the sideline I’ll admit the nerves were creeping in, especially when the ITU music started playing as the athletes were introduced and lined the pontoon. Ryan exited the water with the main group in a fierce swim and was well positioned throughout the bike, fighting off the big Russians as they rode all over the road through the narrow streets of Sydney and although he couldn’t stick with the front runners raced superbly to finish in 46th position and 4th Australian and with a big block of training ahead of him before Madrid things look good for the upcoming international season. And even though all our age-group athletes had their own races to prepare for every single one of them could be heard on the streets of Sydney, Ryan even commenting that Lawrence Sangster was one of the most noticeable voices on the entire course!
With the elites out of the way it was up to our age-group athletes come Sunday morning who had the opportunity to ride over the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of their course, a privilege that not even our elites were granted! I must say it is a hard job keeping track of 10 athletes, all going off in different waves and I take my hat off to all of the spectators and especially Dan who does it at every race but thanks to modern technology I was able to track all of them on my phone and know exactly where I should stand to be able to cheer for them.
And one of the first DAT athletes to cross the finish line was Courtney Dutton as she claimed what is becoming an ever familiar position on top of the podium in a dominant performance that even scored her some impressive television time on the ITU highlights video. With her performances in Geelong, Devonport, Mooloolaba and Sydney Courtney has cemented herself as the Australian athlete to watch in the 20-24yr age group at the Auckland World Championships and will be determined to show the world that it is not only within this country that she can dominate a race in such convincing fashion!
In the same age group Elyza Codner finished 13th and will be eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Australian team to see if she will be joining Courtney in Auckland to make the step up from Australian representative over the sprint distance up to the Olympic distance but after posting her quickest Olympic distance time that included personal bests over the swim, cycle and run, she has staked a firm claim for that green and gold uniform.
Taking overall line honors amoungst all of the DAT athletes was Robbie Mullins who is progressing quickly up the ranks and showing significant improvement with every race. In one of the toughest and most competitive age groups he finished 21st. What was even more impressive was that his long term nemesis, Drew Westbrook finished less than a minute in front of him and if Robbie’s trend is anything to go by it won’t be long before Drew is not only looking behind him but will be the one trying to do the chasing!
In other age-group performances it is no surprise that after watching these guys in so many local races going toe to toe, Dave Kelly, Dave Sangster and Dave MacDonald all finished an incredible 8th in their individual categories! Simon Leeper finished 16th, Rob Murdoch finished 32nd and Kate Gibney finished a very impressive 14th.
But without doubt the performance of the day has to go to Geoff Lemmon. Geoff ran a fantastic race to finish in 4th position and was the 2nd Queenslander across the line and all but cemented his spot on the Australian team for Auckland
That evening we all met up again to share the stories of the day and to do so with not only all these athletes but many of their families was a great way to top off a fantastic weekend!
3 comments:
As one of the DAT contingent who competed in Sydney, it was certainly the best location for racing and spectating, and recommend to all athletes they put it on their racing calenders ... you wont regret it!
I also echo the thoughts of all the DAT athletes as we excelled amongst some of the best triathletes competing in Age Group racing .... that we owe a big thank you to the Man .... Dan ... he can't drink or boogie in The Rocks like Geoff but shit he can coach!
Thank you Dan ... we wouldn't try as hard as we do for anyone else .... and get the results !
I'll always have something that not even time can take away. Pain. ...because when I've forgotten everything else, I'll feel that ache... that tightness in my throat... that heaviness in my chest... and know that I loved a woman once and she loved me back. It's proof that I existed and so did she. Cheap Flights to Sydney | Flights to Sydney
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