Matthew Hauser and Ashleigh Gentle have claimed the male and female titles in the Australian Elite and Under-23 Standard Championship at the Mooloolaba Triathlon.
Less than 30 seconds covered the podium in the men’s race, with Hauser edging out Brandon Copeland and Jake Birtwhistle, while Gentle finished over a minute ahead of Jaz Hedgeland with Barbara Riveros third.
Hauser was first out of the water following the 1.5km swim, with the Queenslander dropping back to 11th following the 40km bike course. He then powered through the pack on the run, moving up to third by the three kilometre mark, before taking the lead and heading on to victory.
“It was a pretty warm day out there after an early start,” said Hauser. “We’re not used to starting this early, it was good to catch the sunrise and have a good race out there. The boys were feeling really good, I know that Brandon was training really well, he’s a training partner of mine and Jake is heading towards Tokyo. Jake didn’t have as much to prove out there today but it was another strong performance by him.
“It was quite close, it came down to the final kilometre on the run, luckily I was able to have the legs and push up over that hill and put in a bit of surge and the boys couldn’t stick with me,” he said. “It was really good to take out the win and prove my form over that 10km run.
“Today is just another step forward towards Tokyo, another stamp on my name to the selectors, hopefully they’ll see this and see how my form is progressing, that’s all I can do, keep on putting in performances like this,” he said.
Gentle was the fifth female to return to the beach, before making her way up to second on the bike leg. The Rio 2016 representative then hit the lead early in the 10km run, powering on to take the win on Beach Terrace.
“I was super happy to be out there, the water was absolutely beautiful, it was so nice to swim in the ocean again,” said Gentle. “The bike course got a bit tactical with the group of Aussie girls but most of us pulled a turn and rolled around with some sort of cohesion. It was super hot on the run so I just tried to start pretty conservatively and make sure that I didn’t blow up, I was pretty happy that I got a gap fairly early and just tried to settle into a good pace.
“It was really pleasing to get the win, there was a lot of things that I wanted to execute today to see where I was at,” she said. “I’m working pretty hard to nail the basics now and it’s only the very start of my build up to Tokyo. I’m pretty pleased with how I felt, I’ve got lots of work to do to be honest but I can’t complain with this result.”
