🇳🇿 Illness and injury has seen the Tri NZ elite team shrink from a dozen to 10 a week out from the 2025 World Triathlon Championship Finals in Wollongong.
Under-23 hopefuls James Corbett and Lulu Johnson are 11th hour scratchings for the October 15-19 showcase which features the WTCS Grand Final, U23 and Junior (U-19) world championships and a bonus T100 Triathlon World Tour round.
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Corbett has been unable to shake a bout of influenza picked up returning from a recent Asian campaign while Johnson fractured her tailbone and suffered a concussion after a fall at Asia Cup Yilan in Chinese Taipei on September 26. It’s especially cruel for Tauranga’s Johnson, who battled to 8th in Yilan, as Wollongong was to be her World Championship Finals debut.
Here’s a handy breakdown of who is racing what and when:
WTCS Grand Final
Sunday, October 19
Women: 2pm (local time). Men: 5pm (local)
Standard Distance (1500m / 40km / 10km)
🇳🇿NZ Representatives (clockwise above from top left):
• Saxon Morgan (Christchurch)
• Eva Goodisson (Gold Coast)
• Hayden Wilde (Andorra)
What you need to know: None of the Kiwis are in the reckoning for world titles and Wilde’s entry is dependent on the Kiwi talisman pulling up fit from T100 Wollongong the previous day. The Andorra-based world No.7 (he’s slipped down the short course rankings while ascending to No.1 in the PTO world rankings) won the equivalent race in Torremolinos last October.
This will be Morgan’s debut at the WTCS decider at the end of a injury-impacted season, most recently featuring an Asia Cup silver in Japan and a 33rd placing at WTCS Weihai. The 25-year-old Cantabrian does have happy experience at the WT Championship Finals to call upon; he was 8th in the U23 worlds in Abu Dhabi in November 2022.
Goodisson was 46th at her debut WT Finals in Pontevedra in 2023 but is a different triathlete nowadays after fighting back from a neural back injury. This season has included a WTCS best 23rd in Alghero and many speed sharpening lessons learned in French Grand Prix and Supertri racing.
Injuries and focus outside of the WT bubble in this post Paris Olympic Games reset year means NZL will be represented by just three athletes in the blue-ribband WTCS finale. Tayler Reid and Nicole van der Kaay (70.3 worlds), Dylan McCullough (recovering from injury) and Ainsley Thorpe (training focus) are all either unavailable for, or opting to bypass, Wollongong.
McMecking has form as four reduced to two for U23 worlds
World Triathlon U23 Championships
Thursday, October 16
Men: 1:15pm (local) Women: 4:15pm (local)
Standard Distance (1500m / 40km / 10km), Cove Beach
🇳🇿 New Zealand representatives (clockwise above from top left):
• Brea Roderick (Christchurch)
• Lulu Johnson (Tauranga)
• Henry McMecking (Christchurch)
• James Corbett (Auckland)
What you need to know: McMecking has arguably been Tri NZ’s most improved elite of 2025 and will go into Wollongong buoyed by a World Cup top-15 in Morocco and a Asia Cup bronze medal in Japan – his first elite podium. On track to comfortably eclipse his 27th at last October’s U23 worlds in Torremolinos despite spending part of the year sidelined by injury.
Roderick hasn’t raced since WTCS Hamburg in July but has emerged from an injury scare relatively unscathed. The lack of racing will either mean the Cantabrian is slightly underdone or remarkably fresh as she attempts to better her 14th in Torremolinos.
In addition to the late scratchings of Corbett and Johnson, injury/medical challenges have ruled out Napier World Cup star Gus Marfell, Sam Parry and Xterra Rotorua winner turned on-road hope Robbie White.
Future Five Warm Up on The GC
World Triathlon Junior (U19) Championships
Friday, October 17
Men: 2:15pm (local). Women: 4:15pm (local)
Sprint Distance (750m / 20km / 5km), Cove Beach
Saturday, October 18
U23 & Junior Mixed Relay: 12:15pm local, Cove Beach Marina
🇳🇿 New Zealand representatives (clockwise from top left):
• Sophie Webber (Brisbane)
• Hayley Cornwall (Palmerston North)
• Caleb Wagener (Auckland)
• Coen Anderson (Christchurch)
• Finnley Oliver (Tauranga)
What you need to know: Oliver is ready for Wollongong after a experience rich European campaign earlier this year in his bid to eclipse his 17th place at last year’s Junior worlds in Torremolinos. Started 2025 with bronze at the Oceania Juniors in Devonport and handled himself admirably amongst the big boys for 13th at the Oceania Super Sprint on the Gold Coast. Standout European result was a matching 13th at European Cup Wels and returned home to impressively win the U20 10km road race nationals. Trending nicely for his final crack in the U19 bracket.
Wagener earned the admiration of none other than Ironman royal Cameron Brown when he captured the Junior Duathlon title at June’s World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Pontevedra. Why? Because the Aucklander races anything that moves and is making a knack of winning regularly too. Has enjoyed much running success on both sides of the Tasman Sea and has been selected for the NZ U20 World Cross Country Team. Few have the drive of Wagener who has more chances at U19 level too.
Like Wagener, Anderson is coached by Ironman Pro Series campaigner Ben Hamilton. Was 5th at the Oceania Juniors in March and looks to have come through ankle and hand injuries well.
Cornwall, like Oliver, is coached by Craig Kirkwood, Hayden Wilde’s former mentor. Wollongong is a chance to avenge a miserable maiden worlds experience in Torremolinos last October where illness force a DNF. Has raced only four times in 2025 with 21st at Asia Cup Osaka in May her most recent start. Training well and has another year beyond Wollongong in the U19 grade.
Brisbane-based, Hawke’s Bay proud Webber is a busy young Kiwi, studying medicine at the University of Queensland. Per coach Chris Willett, Webber has been “working her butt off” with training groups in Brisbane. Like Cornwall, has another year at U19 level beyond Wollongong so will be out to soak in the experience. Was 7th at the Oceania Juniors in Devonport and 25th at the Oceania Super Sprint, holding her own with the senior women.
The Juniors left last Friday for a 10-day prep camp on the Gold Coast (Brisbane ’32 Olympics anyone?). The camp will include a closed race organised by AusTri to blow out the cobwebs.
“We’ll have seven days of training before heading to Wolly,” Tri NZ Development Lead Chris Willett said. “We’re based around Southport and working with other international teams, Estonia, Aussie and maybe GB to sharpen the tools.”
Phillips & Currie on T100 Menu for ‘The Gong’
💯 If history has taught Swim Bike Run anything, it is to take a triathlon start list with a hearty grain of salt until the gun goes. Those who show up on start sheets and those who actually turn up on start lines are often very different people. Still, it hasn’t dulled our excitement at the release of the fields, provisional of course, for T100 Wollongong on October 18 (2pm women, 3:45pm men local time).
In addition to men’s leader Hayden Wilde, top-10 contender Kyle Smith and Singapore statement maker Amelia Watkinson, we spy the names of Braden Currie (left), Mike Phillips (right) and now Ben Hamilton (below) in the lists for Wollongong, a late replacement for the circuit’s cancelled Lake Las Vegas round.
Currie has raced under the PTO banner before, notably in the Collins Cup but this will be his, Phillips’ and Hamilton’s debut in the T100 Triathlon World Tour if they do show in The Gong. There is also speculation, unfounded till those start listers take the hooter, that Smith may bypass Wollongong and be replaced by another Kiwi, Sam Osborne.
We cannot wait to see how all the Ironman Pro Series campaigners stack up in the 100km hustle. Phillips will be a coiled spring after sadly being forced to DNS the recent Ironman worlds in Nice due to a broken bone in his hand.
We’ll also be rooting for Watkinson who was an excellent 8th at T100 Singapore in April and has since medalled at 70.3 Port Macquarie, 70.3 Lapu Lapu and Challenge Samarkand before a “chocolate medal” 4th at 70.3 Sunshine Coast.
