🦶After what felt like a giant leap forward in his career at the Oceania Sprint Championships in Napier a fortnight ago, a small and seemingly inconsequential step the next day reminded Joel Lange just how tough elite triathlon can be.
The 24-year-old stood on a stone chip at Mitre 10 Park Hawke’s Bay transitioning from the pool to the bike at the continental Mixed Relay Championships. When we say stood, we really mean impaled himself on the stone which lodged itself deeply in the Sydney-based Kiwi’s left heel.
That made the bike and especially the run to come an increasingly painful affair. Still, fuelled by adrenaline and the pride of representing his adopted country, Lange soldiered on to bravely anchor the NZL ‘2’ team of Brea Roderick, Henry McMecking and Phoebe Carter to 4th.
It was a decent MR result to go with his eye-catching 8th in the individual men’s continental sprint champs at Ahuriri Beach the previous afternoon.
As such, Lange will take more confidence than physical scar tissue into this weekend’s Oceania Standard Distance Championships in Devonport, his “pretty gnarly” heel injury fully healed for the Tasmania test.
Raised in Great Britian to a British mother and Kiwi father, Lange has made steady strides to the fringe of the Tri NZ High Performance set-up since committing his future to the fabled black tri suit.
He’s certainly come a long way since making his Team NZL debut at the 2023 Aquathlon Championships in Ibiza – primarily an age group event. There was a golden breakthrough when he claimed the U23 title at the Aquathlon Worlds in Townsville in late 2024 and last season he raised eyebrows by leading every swim en-route to the A final, and 12th overall, at the Oceania Super Sprint Championships at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast.
After Napier, his world ranking soared from 179th to 153rd and has since settle at 156th as we lead into Devonport.
After a tough World Triathlon Cup debut in February 2025, when Lange finished 34th and last in Napier in his first race on New Zealand soil, the return to Hawke’s Bay earlier this month was a seminal moment.
“Napier was quite the race, quite a big target for me off the back of last year when I came dead last at the World Cup. That gave me a bit more motivation to smash it,” Lange said.
“Making the front pack out of the water was quite the key for me. The month leading into the race, imagining that feeling of being out the front with Hayden Wilde and having the hardest minute of my life [starting the bike leg]…and low and beyond it happened. I was just trying to hang onto him as long as I could.”
Wilde went on to top an all-Kiwi podium featuring Saxon Morgan and Henry McMecking. Lange was the next best of the Kiwis in 8th, just ahead of Cantab Robbie White and not far behind regular training partner Luke Schofield.
“It was an awesome step-up race result wise and in my career so far,” said Lange who has immersed himself in a self-guided training group including Luke Schofield, his twin Jayden and fellow Kiwi Will Taylor who has just moved to Sydney.
“It’s given me a huge amount of confidence to step up and do a few more World Cups, see where I’m at [globally]. The goal is just to keep working on my world ranking, race World Cups, test myself against the rest of world especially in the sprint and super sprint. It’s started off well.”
Lange senses a real opportunity in the shorter, higher intensity distances where his swim strength can get him into the lead pack. But he also knows he can’t just be a “one trick pony’, thus his determination to shine again in Devonport over the 1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run test.
Morgan is the only other Kiwi in a small 11-strong elite men’s field for Saturday. The Cantab, ranked third behind Luke Willian and Callum McClusky and just ahead of another genuine Aussie threat in Brandon Copeland, will be keen to double down on his positive start to the Oceania racing block.
New Zealand has a larger representation in the U23 championship with a quarter of the 28-strong field to race in black. The U23s will race alongside the elites with Canterbury’s Henry McMecking ranked No.1 ahead of Brayden Mercer and Toby Powers.
Auckland’s Caleb Wagener is the top seed for the Oceania Junior Championships ahead of dangerous Aussies Zahn Spies and Jack Woodbury.
Wagener is one of a dozen Kiwis set to line-up in the U19 sprint distance race, before they back up in the Oceania Junior Mixed Relay Championships on Sunday.
WOMEN: Quality Trumps Quantity
Rae the sole Kiwi elite
It’s rare that you can squeeze all the names on any elite start-list anywhere into one sentence but that all it takes for the Elite women in Devonport where Amara Rae is the sole Kiwi set to toe the line alongside Kira Hedgeland, Ellie Hoitink and Zoe Clarke.
The U23 women’s field is also quality over quantity with Phoebe Carter and Lucy Evans the Kiwis in a 10-strong field that will start in the same race as the elites. Carter is the top ranked Kiwi after claiming silver behind Aussie star Aspen Anderson in Napier.
It will be no surprise if Anderson leaves the elite women in her wake, as she did in Napier where she finished behind only Canadian Desirae Ridenour to claim elite silver in addition to the U23 gold.
There’s encouraging depth in numbers for the Continental Junior (U19) title with six Kiwis in a 31-strong field. Brisbane-based Hawke’s Bay medical student Sophie Webber is the top ranked Kiwi at No.3 behind Aussies Addison Houslip and Claire Spicknall.
Oceania Triathlon Championships
Devonport, Tasmania
March 14-15
New Zealand Representatives
MEN
Elite (Standard Distance)
Joel Lange
Saxon Morgan
U23 (Standard Distance)
Benjamin Airey
Ivan Abele
Grayson Westgate
Gus Marfell
Robbie White
Henry McMecking
William Taylor
Luke Kuggeleijn
Jett Curteis
U19 (Sprint Distance)
Alec Ball
Caleb Wagener
Connor Kemp
Jackson Pinoque
Matthew Moore
Oliver Barnett
Oliver Christie
Olli Aitken
Ruie Hyslop
Theo Bray
Xavier Christie
Yahav Wiezel
WOMEN
Elite (Standard Distance)
Amara Rae
U23 (Standard Distance)
Lucy Evans
Phoebe Carter U19 (Sprint Distance)
Charlotte Chiles
Indie Williams
Melanie Button
Mila Laarakkers
Sophie Lampe
Sophie Webber
