By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi
Angie Keen and Liam Miller punched their tickets to the World Triathlon Age Group Championship in Pontevedra, Spain after claiming the Suzuki NZ Aquabike Championships at the Seven Oaks Kinloch Triathlon Festival.
New Plymouth’s Keen (main image) won the 1500m swim, 40km cycle title in 1:46:43, topping a podium also including Rachel Clarke and Deirdre Lack. Tauranga’s Miller, meanwhile, won the men’s title in 1:28:37, leading home 40-44 age-groupers Terry Jack and Tom Burgess.
Keen and Miller (below) now have the option to compete in the standard distance aquabike (non draft legal) worlds, to be staged on the sidelines of the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series finale in Pontevedra from September 22-24. The pair will receive flights to the value of $2500 and an accommodation subsidy, a sweetener made possible by the on-going generosity of Tri NZ patron Garth Barfoot.
First and second-place-getters in each age-group category are also eligible for an accommodation subsidy.
In an intriguing prelude to Tri NZ’s elite summer of tri which opens with Oceania Cup Wanaka on Friday, Austin Carter won the elite men’s sprint distance triathlon in Taupo. Carter, the son of Olympic champion Hamish, streaked away with the 750m swim, 20km cycle, 5km run title in 58:47 from fellow Tri NZ development squad members Sam Parry (59:15) and Alex Brackenbury (1:00:01).
Neve McKenzie and Alec Ball won the respective Tri NZ Junior Triathlon Series U16 races with Ball edging Xavier and Oliver Christie. Hayley Cornwall and Mila Laarakkers filled the girls podium.
The U19 titles went to Hannah Prosser (1:08:46) from Oliva Rooney and Charlotte Brown, and Finnley Oliver (1:03:46) from Reeve Rooney and Joshua Gordon-Glassford.
Clarke Ellice (2:15:14) and Sarah Gorman (2:32:25) captured the Erin Baker Standard Distance triathlon titles at the Tri-sport Taupo showpiece, from Finn Sherlock and Hannah Martin respectively.
