Australian Tri Team Aims High
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
With a year to go until the Olympics, Australia is hopeful for a medal sweep.
Australian triathlon’s Olympic program badly needed its big weekend in Hamburg.
On July 16-17, Australia posted the sorts of results that have historically been its habit in the sport.
Brad Kahlefeldt won round four of the world championship series as the three Emmas – reigning world champion Moffatt, rising star Jackson and Beijing Olympics gold medalist Snowsill – swept the women’s podium in that order.
But it was also the first time this season that any Australians had reached the podium in the series.
The opening two races scared the hell out of the program.
Apart from Brendan Sexton’s breakthrough fourth place in Sydney, no-one made the top 10.
“If you’re going to get kicked in the guts, I guess 15 months out is the right time,” said national performance director Mike Flynn.
“It was a massive wake-up call.”
The woeful start to the series prompted a reassessment within the national program.
“Training form, to be honest, is right on target – it just hasn’t converted this year to results,” head coach Shaun Stephens said before Hamburg.
While top 10 results for Kahlefeldt and Moffatt at round three in Austria showed their form was turning around, Hamburg was the shot in the arm everyone needed.
But British brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee and Canadian Paula Findlay – the most in-form competitors right now – did not race in Hamburg.
Read more: ninemsm