If you were privy to a peek at Nicole van der Kaay’s triathlon tarot cards, chances are they’d show a future at the pointy end of the sport’s mid -to-long distances. But for now, she’s still definitely got the “spark” for swim, bike and run’s shorter, Olympic Games-aligned disciplines.
The Taupo 30-year-old has proved just that, and that she can navigate the tandem demands of the T100 Triathlon World Tour and Oceania competition, by successfully defending the continental SuperSprint title at Runaway Bay on Sunday.
Van der Kaay topped an eliminator-weekend podium featuring countrywoman Eva Goodisson, the Gold Coast-based Kiwi likewise repeating her bronze medal result from here 12 months ago behind Aussie Sophie Malowiecki.
There were other notable Kiwi top 10s for Brea Roderick (5th) and Phoebe Carter (8th) in the women’s A final and a B Final gold for Amara Rae. Van der Kaay’s partner Tayler Reid was the best of the Kiwi men, meanwhile, 4th in his comeback from a rib injury in a final successfully defended by Luke Schofield. Reid edged Cantab Henry McMecking in 5th with Joel Lange (10th), Robbie White (12th), Finnley Oliver (14th), Benjamin Airey (15th) and Caleb Wagener (16th), the only U19 Junior, also reaching the A final at the two-day eliminator. Saxon Morgan was second in his heat on Saturday but withdrew from his semifinal and Sunday as a precaution with a soar throat.
But Sunday belonged to van der Kaay, still the Queen of Oceania short course racing despite a world ranking of 70 heading into the weekend. That’s set for a dramatic bump when World Triathlon does the weekly recalculations overnight.
“Yeah, I’m really, really stoked with that race. I mean, it was such a hard day, and it’s an honour to back up the title,” said van der Kaay who nullified her expected disadvantage out of the Gold Coast Performance Centre pool with a huge effort on the bike and a trademark and carefully calculated run to edge Malowiecki by a second.
Van der Kaay was uncharacteristically off the pace in her only other short course start in 2026, 7th at Oceania Cup Napier on March 1. But that was due to her training focus on T100 Gold Coast where she’d go on to finish 4th on debut.
With T100 Spain in Pamplona on May 23 her next start, it seems NVDK will continue to walk the training tightrope between 100km racing and the World Triathlon’s critical WTCS and Mixed Relay races incoming, notably LA28 qualification window MR’s at Quiberon (June 21-22) and Hamburg (July 12-13). Â
“Yeah. Yeah. I love it,” van der Kaay said of her return to short course racing.
“I mean, I’ve been doing this for a decade, and I love supersprint and mixed relay. I don’t know. I’ve got a spark for it, and to see I’ve still got that fast twitch for the mixed relay is really cool.
“Obviously, I did T100 a few weeks ago, and it’s still pretty quick, but this is a lot quicker. It’s over in the time you do a swim in the other race. So yeah, I’m really happy with how things are tracking for the year.
“I’ll go back home for a week, pack up all my gear. Right now, it’s pretty cold and wet in New Zealand, so only a week there, and then start heading to the northern hemisphere, stop over in Phuket, few weeks of heat, and then to Spain.
“Next race is in Pamplona …and then we’ll focus in on the short course racing, and super excited for the locations too. They’re pretty epic.”
Van der Kaay towed a big bunch up to the lead pack of five and then three riders (Goodisson, Roderick and Tara Sosinski) and then trailed Goodisson and Roderick in and out of T2 in that order.
“The girls up front are such good swimmers, especially pool swimmers. I mean, fantastic pool swimmers. So, I was a bit off the back, and yeah, that made a really hard race for me, but I just committed and basically rode solo the whole way.
“Had a big old train, which was pretty funny, but yeah, rode right up to the front just at the last U-turn, caught a few breaths, and then yeah, got ready for the run and basically tackled the whole run head-on and just held on for the win.”
