Main image courtesy PTO
Oceania Cup Wānaka
Feb. 17
Swim 750m | Bike 18km | Run 5km
Elite W 6.30pm/Elite M 7.45pm
By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi
Who is No.2? The answer to that burning Paris Olympic Games selection question will become just a little clearer on Friday evening after the opening race of the elite summer of tri on the picturesque shores of Lake Wānaka.
With Hayden Wilde in Belgium prepping for the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) opener in Abu Dhabi on March 3, a new name will top the men’s podium for the first time in a long time at an elite race in New Zealand.
As Wilde’s lieutenant at the Tokyo Olympics and Birmingham Commonwealth Games and a regular front-of-pack presence in Super League last season, Tayler Reid justifiably wears the No.1 bib for the twilight Oceania Cup sprint.
Luke Willian, who won the last World Cup race held in New Zealand in New Plymouth four years ago, and fellow Aussie Jake Birtwhistle, fresh from victory in Ironman 70.3 Tasmania, will add ample trans-Tasman spice to Friday night’s race. But the parochial focus will be on Reid’s bid to hold his fellow Kiwis at bay.
Can Saxon Morgan kick on from his eye-catching 8th place at the U23 worlds in Abu Dhabi last November? Trent Thorpe won the Super League-esque Mount Surfbreaker pre-Christmas and has been re-energised by his new coaching alliance with former Olympian Ryan Sissions. Dylan McCullough will be desperate to make a fast start to the year after his topsy-turvy 2022, trending so well with a 7th at the Comm Games in Birmingham only to go off the boil courtesy of a broken elbow. Don’t discount the bloke in the No.9 bib either; Janus Staufenberg can run with the best of them and will be there or thereabouts if he’s in touch after the swim.
Then, of course, there’s Kyle Smith, the PTO No.34 who is in Wanaka to attend to unfinished Olympic business. The Taupo 25-year-old might be sporting No.43 in a 46-man race but count on him being at the very pointy end of the race with those swim-bike skills former Olympic champion Jan Frodeno rates as the best in triathlon, the mid and long distances at least.
Smith was unceremoniously cut from the Tri NZ funding umbilical cord prior to Tokyo despite a promising 11th place finish at the 2019 U23 Worlds in Switzerland. With the beauty of hindsight, he gets now it was a cold-hearted financial decision but rest assured it will provide all the motivation he needs to be a dangerous presence in Wānaka and Taupo next Saturday before he darts to Abu Dhabi for his maiden WTCS start alongside Wilde.
“I’m not going to say I am [going to qualify] because I think that is arrogant and quite disrespectful for everyone else who is doing it, but I’m going to attempt to go back to World Triathlon and qualify for the Olympics,” Smith told the MX Endurance podcast.
“And then attempt to qualify to get an Olympic medal is I guess is what I could say. So yeah, it will be 70.3, it will be PTO distance [100km] and hopefully also I’ll race Super League as well as World Triathlon and that WTCS to try and get a qualification for Paris before then hopefully doing a Kristian [Blummenfelt] and returning to Ironman.”
Van der Kaay out to reassert position as Kiwi women’s No.1
Since the Tokyo Olympics, Nicole van der Kaay has been the established Kiwi No 1 but the Taupo 27-year-old won’t wear that number in Wānaka. That honour goes instead to Cambridge-based Aucklander Ainsley Thorpe courtesy of her higher world ranking.
The last time the pair raced side-by-side at the WTCS decider in Abu Dhabi, Thorpe finished 24th and van der Kaay an excruciatingly painful 48th courtesy of stomach cramps caused by the stifling UAE capital heat. It will be fascinating to see who starts the fresh season faster in a race where Spaniard Sara Guerrero Manso and Aussie Ellie Hoitink wear the No3. And No.4 bibs. Watch too for seasoned World Triathlon racer Emma Jeffcoat.
Through a Kiwi lens, there will be much interest outside of the Thorpe-van der Kaay tussel in Brea Roderick, fresh from her maiden Olympic distance start and win at the Canterbury Classic, Otago med student Olivia Thornbury who finished 2022 strongly with 7th at World Cup Miyazaki and second at Asia Cup Ipoh, and dual Tinman and Surfbreaker champion Hannah Knighton.
NB: Triathlon.kiwi will carry full coverage from the Oceania Cup in Wanaka. Stay tuned also for coverage of Saturday’s Challenge Wanaka Half, Suzuki NZ Cross Triathlon Championship and Suzuki NZ South Island Mid Aquabike Championship.
2023 Oceania Cup Wanaka – Start Lists
Women
51. Ainsley Thorpe NZL
52. Nicole Van Der Kaay NZL
53. Sara Guerrero Manso ESP
54. Ellie Hoitink AUS
55. Brea Roderick NZL
56. Olivia Thornbury NZL
57. Emma Jeffcoat AUS
58. Hannah Howell NZL
59. Olivia Cummings NZL
60. Jessica Ewart-McTigue AUS
61. Hannah Knighton NZL
62. Madison Keightley NZL
63. Manami Iijima GUM
64. Aleisha Wesley AUS
65. Angharad Llewellyn NZL
66. Aviv Levi ISR
67. Mikayla Messer AUS
68. Victoria Gillies AUS
69. Sophie Spencer NZL
70. Maddison Yarrow AUS
71. Lotte Vandekerckhove BEL
72. Natasha Bowyer NZL
73. Emily Irvine NZL
74. Amara Rae NZL
75. Sarah McClure NZL
76. Anna Lindsay NZL
Men
1. Tayler Reid NZL
2. Luke Willian AUS
3. Jacob Birtwhistle AUS
4. Trent Thorpe NZL
5. Saxon Morgan NZL
6. Dylan McCullough NZL
7. Oscar Dart AUS
8. Callum McClusky AUS
9. Janus Staufenberg NZL
10. Luke Schofield AUS
11. Benjamin Zorgnotti TAH
12. Tzu I Pan TPE
14. James Corbett NZL
15. Lachlan Haycock NZL
16. Jayden Schofield AUS
17. David Martin CZE
18. Lachlan Jones AUS
19. Delian Stateff ITA
20. Toby Powers AUS
21. Sam Parry NZL
22. Austin Carter NZL
23. Toby Croudson AUS
24. Ivan Abele NZL
25. Bradley Course AUS
26. Sheng Cher Bryce Chong SGP
27. Henry McMecking NZL
28. Yoann Colin AUS
29. Jack Crome AUS
30. Oliver Larcombe NZL
31.Luke Scott NZL
32. Jordan Chugg AUS
33. Jordan Rieck AUS
34. Brooklyn Henry AUS
35. Lleyton Wall AUS
36. Nick Sasse NZL
37. Ioan Fuller NZL
38. Alex Brackenbury NZL
39. Gus Marfell NZL
40. Rory Thornhill AUS
41. Grayson Westgate NZL
42. William Taylor NZL
43. Kyle Smith NZL
44. Scott Shackleton NZL
45. Christian Davey NZL
46. Benjamin Airey NZL
