Mixed Relay one-two sees Team NZL sign off from Devonport in style

Photos: World Triathlon

By Triathlon.kiwi
New Zealand rounded out a successful Oceania Sprint Championship campaign in Tasmania with a podium one-two in the Australian Mixed Relay Championship on Sunday.

Janus Staufenberg, Brea Roderick, Saxon Morgan and Olivia Thornbury won in 1:17:00 – 75 seconds clear of the NZL B team of Lachlan Haycock, Hannah Howell, Henry McMecking and Hannah Knighton.

Thornbury bursts the tape for Team NZL A. Photo: Delly Carr

NZL C – Ivan Abele, Sophie Spencer, Luke Scott and Sarah McClure – gave the Kiwis three of the top four spots in 4^th place in Devonport in 1:19:21, behind bronze medallists Western Australia (1:18:54).

The NZL D quartet of Ben Airey, Madison Keightley, Gus Marfell and Charlotte Brown were 7^th in 1:20:34.

Victory for NZL A came after Staufenberg claimed 4^th place in Saturday’s Oceania Sprint Championship, a place ahead of Dylan McCullough who captured the U23 men’s title. Roderick, meanwhile, secured bronze in the U23 women’s race and 6^th overall in the elite women’s race on Sunday won by Kiwi No.1 Nicole van der Kaay.

The Kiwi squad are en-route to Taranaki for World Cup New Plymouth on Sunday. The final Australasian date of the summer is the Oceania Standard Distance Championship in Port Douglas on May 27 before Tri NZ’s European HP camp opens in Banyoles, Spain.