Oceania Triathlon

The Paraduathlon was a gold rush for the home nation with six of eight gold medals staying in Australia at the 2015 Adelaide ITU Duathlon World Championships.

Today’s winners included Sarah Tait (AUS) – FPT1; Alex Welsh (AUS) – MPT1; Alessandro Carvani Minetti (ITA) – MPT2; Sally Pilbeam (AUS) – FPT3; Fiona Southorn (NZL) – FPT4; Tony Scoleri (AUS) – MPT4; Casey Hyde (AUS) –FPT5; and Jonathon Goerlach (AUS) – MPT5.

The first medal’s decided was the men’s PT5 with Aussie athlete Jonathon Georlach (and guide Jack Bigmore) grabbing the gold in a close fought race with Amaud Grandjean (FRA) with Daniel Searle (AUS) picking up the bronze.

“My run is my strength and it really played into our favour in a duathlon. The French really pushed us on the run and kept us honest on the bike. We had to push the whole way.”

“We gain our advantage from our guides on the bike, they can’t drag us in the run or in the swim of the triathlon. Jack really left it all out there on the bike and unusually was hurting on the run but we had a good enough lead out there and managed to hold them off and enjoy the victory coming down the finish chute.”

“I have only been in the sport a few years and Jack is similar but the guys I am racing against around the world have much more condition and experience than me. I am on a steep learning curve to catch up.”

“When I started triathlon I hadn’t learned to swim, so I had a challenge within a challenge to become a good swimmer, so I could give myself further opportunities.”

“It is disappointing that we aren’t on the program for Rio 2016 but on the positives it gives me another four years to get that swim right. I am 33 and I am still learning every day. I will just keep training and follow the processes laid down by my coach Corey Bacon and come Tokyo 2020 we will be ripping and raring to go,” Jonathon said.

Files by Noel McMahon