Team NZL’s Legendary Townsville trio

By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi
As a rule, triathletes are inspired by feats of endurance but Brent Turia (Tri Wellington), Dave Scott (Manawatu Triathlon Club) and Patrick Johnson (Triathlon Tauranga) took it to the next level at the recent World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Townsville.

The Kiwi trio were among a brave cohort of 24 athletes to achieve “Legends” status at the 11-day world championships. How did they achieve this? By completing five of the six possible events on the schedule.

With the heat, it was a gruelling ask and especially for Johnson who finished his final two events – the Aquathlon (2.5km run, 1km swim 2.5km run) and Aquabike (3km swim, 114km bike) – with ribs broken after a fall in the cross triathlon.

Turia, Scott and Johnson were honoured on stage at the closing ceremony in Townsville and received stuff kolar bears and boomerangs decorated on one side by a local artist and with their feats engraved on the other.

We’ll cover this achievement more in the next edition of SWIM BIKE RUN.

Tri NZ’s unashamedly mobile-first digital magazine will have a heavy Townsville focus with inspiring stories from Team NZL’s 82 medal haul, plus info on how you can qualify for next year’s World Multisport Championships in Pontevedra, and the World Triathlon Age Group Championships in Wollongong via this summer’s Tri NZ Suzuki Series.

 Till then, a doff of Tri NZ’s cap to:

Brent Turia (55-59)
24^th – Sprint Duathlon
8^th – Cross Triathlon
4^th – Cross Duathlon
24^th – Aquathlon
7^th – Aquabike

Dave Scott (60-64)
24^th – Sprint Duathlon
17^th – Standard Duathlon
12^th – Cross Triathlon
8^th – Aquathlon
19^th – Aquabike

Patrick Johnson (35-39)
20^th – Sprint Duathlon
15^th – Standard Duathlon
15^th – Cross Duathlon
15^th – Aquathlon
8^th – Aquabike