While Ainsley Thorpe, Gus Marfell, James Corbett and Nicole van der Kaay have taken turns in the headlines this Oceania Triathlon season, the quiet rise of Henry McMecking has not gone unnoticed.
The 21-year-old Cantabrian shook off a recent knee niggle and the reduction of Sunday’s Oceania Triathlon Sprint Championships to a duathlon to finish the top Kiwi male in Mooloolaba.
It continued a thoroughly impressive start to 2025 which has seen McMecking finish 16th overall (and the 4th Kiwi) at World Cup Napier, before claiming the bronze medal in the U23 race and 7th overall at the continental standard distance championships in Tasmania earlier this month.
As a result, McMecking has risen 48 places in the official World Triathlon rankings to 139th since the start of the year and that is likely to improve further overnight when the world governing body’s weekly recalculation is done. (Ed’s note: McMecking rose 27 places to a career high 112th.)
Thorpe’s bronze in Napier, Corbett’s U23 gold and elite silver in Devonport and van der Kaay’s 7th Oceania title in Mooloolaba have justifiably dominated post-race dispatches but McMecking’s trending form augurs well for 2025.
“Obviously it’s a result I’m really proud of,” McMecking told SBR-Tri.com
“Top 10 at an Oceania champs is new territory for me as of the last few weeks so I’m really happy to see the consistency in my results lately. First kiwi home is also pretty cool.”
McMecking cannot wait to get home and back into training for his next start at the Oceania Super Sprint Championships at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast early next month.
The over-arching goal for the year is to improve upon his 27th place at last year’s U23 World Championships in Spain when Wollongong hosts the World Triathlon Championships in October. He’ll likely do that via Asian and European campaigns.
McMecking has targeted improvement in the water as a key focus and was disappointed not to get a chance to back-up his strong swim at the standard distance championships in Devonport yesterday.
“Everyone came here for a triathlon so it’s a shame the weather and jellyfish weren’t playing ball, but that’s life. I was keen to test myself in the water after my best swim to date a few weeks ago in Devonport. I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t a fluke, that my swim has finally stepped up. It seems to be clicking though which is something I’m excited about, but of course the proof is in the results.”
McMecking was fortunate not avoid early crashes on the bike that took down fellow U23s Sam Parry and Gus Marfell. Sadly a broken headset forced Marfell, who had enjoyed his own time in the limelight after finishing second Kiwi behind Tayler Reid at World Cup Napier, out of the race.
“A duathlon was always going to be interesting with slightly different dynamics. I would say relative to some of the other boys that I’m a stronger runner off the bike rather than fresh, so I was a little concerned for that first 2.5km especially with [eventual champion, Aussie Olympian] Matt Hauser here.
“I managed to just stay close enough to be in the main pack out onto the bike. It was gutting to see several of the boys go down at the first roundabout out of T1 but luckily, they happened a few wheels in front of me and behind me, so I got through unscathed.
“My legs on the bike felt mint today which was nice to have after they felt fairly crap in Devonport. I knew positioning at the top of the last undulation was important before the technical section into T2, so I just made sure I was close to the front.
“Apart from that the bike was straightforward. The last run felt pretty normal which was surprising after being close to the limit in the first run.”
The trick now is getting on top of the knee niggle.
“The agitated knee has meant I haven’t done much riding or running, so these results have been especially surprising. The first km of the run had heaps of corners too, so my knee wasn’t having much fun with all the direction changes. From there I just tried to hold my good position out of T2 and really push the uphill drags.
“I’m confident I can get my knee niggle sorted with the help of my awesome support network at home in Christchurch and get back into my normal training load.”
