Photos: Delly Carr/AusTriathlon
By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi in Devonport
The star-in-making version of Brea Roderick from 2023 finally caught up with the 2024 vintage of Brea Roderick in Tasmania on Saturday and the result was golden. For good measure, there was even a silver lining.
The 21-year-old Cantabrian upgraded her bronze medal from last year to gold in the U23 race at the Oceania Triathlon Sprint Championships. Perhaps even more impressive was the fact Roderick’s performance netted a silver medal in the elite race run concurrently with the U23s in picturesque and sunbathed Devonport.
Second place to experienced Aussie Jaz Hedgeland was a timely reminder of the 23’ model Roderick who got an unexpected WTCS start in Montreal and made virtually every post thereafter a winner.
The pop was strangely missing in 8th and 17th places at Oceania Cup Wanaka and World Cup Napier respectively, so Roderick arrived in Tasmania knowing she needed to get her year back on track. She did just that by leading out onto the run and clocking a competitive 17:27 5km split for second place overall.
“Last year went really well, I’ve just been struggling with these first few races to find that fire and get things moving again so it’s good to have a result I’m really proud of,” Roderick told Triathlon.kiwi.
“I executed the race exactly how I wanted to, so yeah, I can’t be more proud of it. Good points, good confidence boost, it’s what I needed.”
With the tide way out, Roderick didn’t get the swim start she wanted into choppy Bass Strait.
“It was definitely a long run into the water which I don’t like usually. I prefer an actual swim, and also with it being a surf swim, it probably suited the Aussies a bit more. I mean I don’t do any swimming in the surf at all in Christchurch so I kind of just had to stay relaxed,” she said.
“I was close enough to the front that I just ran hard up the beach, had a clean transition and then just worked that first lap on the bike really hard, and tried to get the girls moving, so encouraging them, kept lapping through.”
Bike crashes ended promising starts to the race for Aussies Zoe Clarke and Emma Jeffcoat. The Kiwis, particularly second best-of-the-day Eva Goodisson in 7th, were lucky to avoid being taken down by the Jeffcoat crash in particular.
Roderick took full advantage to lead out onto the run. A conservative approach, after perhaps pushing too hard too early on the runs in Wanaka and Napier, paid gold and silver dividends.
“… coming into T2, I just tried to stay relaxed and not go out too hard on the run and pace myself nicely and I was able to hang in there until the end.”
Goodisson also hung tough in a race riddled with incident. The Mount Maunganui-based 25-year-old was penalised for jumping the gun at the start and then, despite having time to gather her thoughts, missed her gear box with her googles and was penalised again. She took that second 10 second penalty on the run but not before also taking a tumble entering T2.
In the final wash-up, it was impressive she held onto 7th place.
“I’m suitably embarrassed about that…I had quite a few hiccups along the way,” Goodisson said.
“That has to be probably the worst track record of any triathlete’s race ever.
“I had a really good swim, like Jeffcoat and I and another Aussie had a huge gap out of the water so I was really, really pleased with my swim but had to take a break [penalty]. Luckily no one passed me, so I still maintained that gap.
“…then had a solid ride but as I was wheeling my bike into transition, it was really technical, and I fell over. I’ve got a few grazes and cuts and stuff. So, I crashed, I had a penalty in T1 and then, as I was flustered in T1, my googles fell out of my box so that was another penalty.
“So, I probably lost a good minute in that race from just simple mistakes that I shouldn’t have made. So, yeah, I’m a bit upset about those mistakes but still overall, in terms of where my swim, bike, run is, I’m actually really, really impressed with how I felt and performed. Yeah, just should have cleaned up those mistakes.”
Another Cantabrian, Sarah McClure, had one of her most impressive races in the top-flight to finish 12th, ahead of Hannah Howell who shrugged off a sore back to finish 14th in an encouraging sign for the season ahead.
Promising youngsters Olivia Cummings and Charlotte Brown rounded out the Kiwi results in 16th and 22nd place respectively.
Oceania Triathlon Sprint Championships – Elite & U23 Women
1 Jaz Hedgeland (AUS) 01:02:37
2 Brea Roderick (NZL) 01:03:01
3 Tara Sosinski (AUS) 01:03:20
Also NZL
7 Eva Goodisson 01:04:26
12 Sarah McClure 01:06:04
14 Hannah Howell 01:07:01
16 Olivia Cummings 01:07:21
22 Charlotte Brown 01:11:11
