The ITU (International Triathlon Union) World Championships will be held on the Gold Coast from the 9th to the 14th of September this year (http://www.worldtriathlongoldcoast.com/).  Last year they were held in Vancouver and Chris was selected for the Australian team in the Olympic distance race.  This year we both decided to try and qualify.

There are two main events – an Olympic distance race on the Sunday (1500 swim, 40km bike, 10km run), “The feature event of the festival with over 42 countries represented and our favourite Olympians present this event alone is expected to attract more than 3,000 athletes from around the world participating in elite, Under 23, Junior, AWAD (Athletes with a Disability), and Age Group categories”, and a sprint distance race (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) on the Saturday, “Half the distance of the Olympic race, sprint triathlon is one of the fastest growing events in triathlon. Along with their Olympic Distance teams, national federations will bring a sprint distance team which will attract over 1000 athletes from across the globe”.

The competition to be on the team this year was fierce being on home soil.  All kinds of ex-pro racers crawled out of the woodwork to compete again.  There was a series of qualifying races for the sprint distance and a different series for the olympic distance.  Competitors earned points from the placings in their best 3 races. I raced in Darwin, Forster (NSW) and Adelaide  and Perth; and Chris raced in Adelaide, Canberra, Perth and Geelong.

Selection was announced just before the Easter weekend and we both made the team – Chris in Olympic, me for sprint. There would have been a lot of people in Chris’ age group who didn’t make the cut based on points – they take a max of 30 people per age group – so he is very pleased to have made the team.  I am just as happy with making the sprint team although there were probably a few less in my age group trying to make it.

So, come September, we’ll be wearing the green and gold over on the Gold Coast.

The ITU long distance world championships will be held in Perth this year in October and Chris is hoping to be selected for that team too.  He is doing the Busso half ironman in May as his last qualifying race for that event.

Natalie

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