MEC athletes were out in force across the east coast of Australia racing in Victoria and QLD.
2XU Race 3 St Kilda
With the downpour of rain over Friday and Saturday water quality was always going to be suspect in the Bay and it was no surprise the event changed to a duathlon on Sunday.
Over the sprint format the swim was replaced with a 3.5k run and Shri Vasudeva made good use of her run speed getting off to a quick start. Backing up with a strong bike it was a slow T2 that saw her narrowly miss the podium finishing 4th. All up a great hit out for Shri.
Sam Janssen is back calling Melbourne home and in the madness of moving states, the festive season and looking after a young family she managed a good hit out in her homecoming race. A run/ride/run that was good, but not her best, that finished her 4th in her age group shows once settled she will be not long off her winning best.
After a winter of racing duathlons to build her up and then unleash her swim weapon in the summer, Talia Goddard once would have been thrown with the cancellation of the swim when the swim was all she had. Instead she used what she has learnt over the last 12 months of training and racing and ran/rode her way into 3rd place in her age group. We look forward to seeing her over the swim/bike/run format and what she can do as she continues to go from strength to strength in training.
In the 35-39 age group we had Travis Hill, Simon Miller and Angelo Bonacci. With what the boys are training for at the moment the additional 7km run to replace the swim was no issue. Simon has started to come into his own with his bike continuing to get stronger while keeping the run speed. Travis Hill has come full circle with the St Kilda triathlon being his first only a few years ago. Fast forward to last Sunday he got through so well and came home with an incredibly strong final run leg. Angelo had one of the races all athletes have where a collective of errors combines. Like the great example he is though he got on with the race, and got it done and keen to make amends in the next race.
Leanne Keating has been quietly chopping wood and Sunday was a great reflection of the work she has done. Finally get some leg speed into those long distance legs has paid off with to great runs bookmarking a strong bike that had her finish on the podium with 3rd in her age group.
David Lloyd starting his 2018 racing account well with a good all round race as his training slowly builds towards a big 2018. As always David got round the course with his trademark grimace which can only bring a smile to the coaches face seeing how David loves getting the most out of himself each and every race.
A congratulations to Les Toth for his first podium in the Victorian Tri series taking the win in the Aquabike category.
Mountain to Surf/Pier to Pub
Kate Elliot completed the Lorne double with the Mountain to Surf run then the Pier to Pub the following day. Kate is enjoying her additional training time in the water and is starting to feel the pay off with a strong swim.
Cath Liston who is a group session regular also took on the P2P swim getting through comfortably.
QLD Triathlon Series
Sarah Hardy travelled to QLD in the hunt for some world championship points in what would be her longest race in 15 months. Sarah is bouncing back well into her training and had a great day out exiting the water 3rd, sorted a mechanical issue on the bike quickly to stay in touch and ran well to finished 10th and collect some world championship points. Sarah is being smart with her training and racing while on the return from injury and I have no doubt her patience will pay off later in the year.
