👋 Howdy! Cantabrian Saxon Morgan can be excused for feeling kinda lonely heading into Oceania Triathlon’s showcase weekend in Tasmania. We’re also covering the latest in an ongoing scheduling kerfuffle, another short course Kiwi with permanent long-distance plans and exciting T100 baby news. But first, we’ve darting out to replenish our popcorn stocks after receiving some wonderful news of our own this week. – KG
⏲️ Today’s online newsletter is 1945 words, a 7-min read. Priceless intel to Full Send yourself into the weekend, with a little side of the week that was.
Who said that?
“If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it.”
💻 Small screen gold: Save for Dylan McCullough’s runaway sprint distance victory in Devonport, last season’s Oceania Triathlon titles all went the way of Australia. You probably don’t want reminding that those pesky neighbours of ours even stole the show at the earlier World Cup in Napier, with Callum McClusky and Sophie Linn claiming season opening victories. Another year of ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi’ chants on repeat would be hard to take although we’re cutting our pals at AusTriathlon some slack because they’ve only gone and handed us a small screen Saturday to savour. That’s right, there will be LIVE stream coverage of the 2025 Oceania Championships!
WATCH: The Oceania Championships
Saturday, March 15 (NZ Times)
11:30am – Junior Women
1:15pm – Junior Men
3:15pm – Elite and U23 women
6pm – Elite and U23 men
NB: Times are subject to change. Stay tuned to Tri NZ’s Facebook page for any updates.
☔ Take 3: First the Oceania Sprint, Para and Mixed Relay Championships were slated for Mt. Maunganui in late March. Then they were split up into two separate events and sent across the ditch. Now, the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred has forced a third scheduling change. The Oceania Sprint Championships have reportedly been shifted 210km north from storm ravaged Kingscliff in NSW to Queensland tourism honeyspot Mooloolaba and will be staged on March 30, a week later than planned. The continental Para and Mixed Relay champs will remain morphed into the May 4-5 Oceania Super Sprint Championships in Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast. Mother Nature willing.
🚵 Sam’s the mountain man: Rotorua favourite Sam Osborne warmed up for the defence of his Ironman 70.3 Geelong title with victory in last weekend’s Xterra Wellington. He was closely pursued by Robbie White, a rising star in the off-road triathlon scene, who finished just 39 seconds behind at 2:00:45. Kieran McPherson rounded out an all Kiwi podium in 2:04:26.
🇿🇦 Phillips to face heavy hitters in SA: Freshly-minted Ironman NZ champ Mike Phillips will face PTO world No.1 Marten Van Riel (BEL), No.2 Magnus Ditlev (DEN) and Rasmus Svenningsson, a Swede somehow ranked above them both, in his bid for a fast Ironman Pro Series start at Ironman South African. Spaniard Marta Sanchez is the women’s top seed for the 226km test, which doubles as the Ironman Africa Championships, on March 30.
👕 LA ’28 threads: Kathmandu has signed an initial four-year deal as the NZ Olympic Committee’s new apparel partner. It will see Tri NZ athletes selected for LA ’28 sport training kit and village casual wear from the iconic Kiwi brand, along with the uniforms for the opening, closing & podium ceremonies.
🧑🤝🧑 NZL age groupers take on the world: Check out who has qualified to represent NZ at the World Triathlon Multisport Championships in Pontevedra (June 20-29) and the World Triathlon Age Group Championships in Wollongong (October 15-19).
🚴♂️ The short and long of it: After being reserve in Paris, Tayler Reid’s desire to make the LA ’28 Olympics is no secret. Nor does it come as any great surprise that the 28-year-old has a long-distance plan post Hollywood. We’ll get a precursor to the future when the Tokyo Olympian lines up in Geelong for his 70.3 debut on Sunday week.
💬 “I’ve been in the velodrome in Cambridge, and spent four hours testing different positions and stuff to try to dial in more aerodynamics for the [90km] cycle leg,” Reid told his home newspaper, The Gisborne Herald. Reid was 7th at World Cup Napier but isn’t sweating on the result. “I was a little disappointed because it was my home race and I wanted to get on the podium. I was going well but made a couple of tactical errors. It was an okay start to the campaign. I’m notorious for starting the year slow and building into it.”
🦘🥊 🥝 Situational Awareness: The Oceania Triathlon Championships is the blue-riband weekend of the continental summer. It will feature combined elite and U23 standard distance (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) races for men and women and sprints (half the distance) for the juniors on Saturday. The U19s will back up Sunday with a mixed relay. All will be raced at Mersey Bluff in Devonport, Tasmania.
📈 Why it matters: In the game of snakes and ladders that is the World Triathlon Rankings, the points hierarchy essentially goes like this: World Championships, WTCS Finals, WTCS regular season events, World Cups, Continental Championships and Continental Cups. This weekend is the Oceania standard distance ‘Championship’ so a chance for the Kiwis involved to get an early-season march on their peers wintering on the other side of the world. The loftier your ranking, the better chance of gaining starts in higher profile events around the globe, including deeper field continental races in Europe and Asia that our emerging Kiwis typically target.
ELITE MEN Why is there only one Kiwi starter?
🎷Solo Sax: With Hayden Wilde warming up for his T100 debut in steamy Singapore, Tayler Reid eyeing Ironman 70.3 Geelong next weekend and Dylan McCullough resting an injury niggle, Saxon Morgan will be the sole Kiwi in the elite men’s race. Technically. As with the women, the elite and U23 men’s races will be run simultaneously meaning any one of the eleven U23 Kiwis – Cameron Maunder, Dion Wallwork, Grayson Westgate, Gus Marfell, Henry McMecking, Ivan Abele, James Corbett, Jett Curteis, Oliver Larcombe, Reeve Dooney and Will Taylor – could conceivably snatch elite glory too. After claiming silver at World Cup Napier three weeks ago, reigning U23 champ Brayden Mercer looks eminently capable of achieving just that. Fellow Aussies Brandon Copeland, Callum McClusky (3rd in Napier) and Luke Schofield are the top seeds in an elite men’s field of 13.
💬 Positives accentuated: Morgan, ranked 6th, could probably do without the additional glare as he continues his comeback from injury. The Christchurch 23-year-old was 24th of 35 starters in Napier, the 7th Kiwi home, and now has to tack an extra 5km’s of pavement pounding on to what proved his sore spot in Napier. “Came to Napier today to see where I’m at for the 2025 season. Swim and bike are there but the run needs work,” he said afterwards. “Have been battling with a pelvic bone injury over the past four months so wasn’t expecting a great overall result. Plenty of positives to take away from today and bring forward into a big year ahead. Running pain free and that’s the main thing at this point of the season. 🤙”
ELITE WOMEN The battle for Cambridge… in TAS
🏠 Bragging rights: Who’s the fastest female triathlete in Cambridge? Kiwi No.1 Ainsley Thorpe will get the chance to prove it’s her with the top three from last month’s World Cup Napier back for a mouth-watering rematch in Devonport. Desirae Ridenour, Thorpe’s Canadian housemate, and Aussie Olympian Emma Jeffcoat finished ahead of the two-time Olympian three weeks ago but Thorpe will hope for a better run in Tasmania. Ridenour cannot claim the continental title but will be spurred on by another points injection after soaring into the world top 100 in Napier. Kiwi eyes will also focus on how Nicole van der Kaay puts together all three disciplines after her disappointing 16th in Napier featuring self-confessed “rookie mistakes and lessons learned”. Eva Goodisson, 5th in Hawke’s Bay, will face a stiffer test of her improving run form over the 10k’s in Devonport where Sarah McClure and Amara Rae are the other Kiwi contenders.
U23s Roderick repeat & Marfell double down?
🫅 Happy hunting ground: Brea Roderick returns to the scene of her Oceania U23 sprint win 12 months ago keen to add the standard distance crown to her Palmarès. She’s ranked No.1 ahead of standard distance titleholder Richelle Hill (AUS) who looks a huge danger after finishing 8th to Roderick’s 13th in Napier three weeks ago. Lulu Johnson and Olivia Cummings will hope to kick on from 22nd and 24th in Napier respectively. Sam Parry, meanwhile, is sadly out of the U23 men’s title fight as he nurses a knee niggle with an eye to Mooloolaba. Gus Marfell, 13th in Napier, James Corbett and Henry McMecking shape as the best Kiwi hopes although Ivan Abele will have gained huge confidence from his bike burst in Napier.
JUNIORS Oz stars back to push Kiwi next gen
👦 A Kiwi baker’s dozen: Finnley Oliver and Hayley Cornwall claimed silver and bronze in last summer’s Oceania Junior (U19) Championships in Napier and again face titleholders Jack Woodberry (TAS) and Aspen Anderson (QLD) in Devonport. The other U19 Kiwis competing are Alec Ball, Caleb Wagener, Coen Anderson, Connor Kemp, Joshua Gordon-Glassford, Oliver Barnett, Oliver Christie, Thomas Newsom, Xavier Christie and Charlotte Chiles and Sophie Webber.
📋 Start Lists
3:15pm Saturday: Elite women and U23 women
6pm Saturday: Elite men and U23 men
🤔 Memory recall: Tayler Reid and Ainsley Thorpe were the best performed Kiwis in last season’s Oceania Standard Distance Championships, placing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Question: Can you name the elite winners at Wharewaka Point in Taupo?
Hint: One is an AusTri Olympian, the other not.
Answer in the footer.
⬆️ Tassie timeline: Delly Carr guesses he’s snapped at least 30 of the 40 years of the fabled Devonport Triathlon. The world renowned Aussie photographer, who is calling time on his career at the end of this year, has shared some of his favourite images from the Tasmanian institution in an excellent piece from our friends at AusTriathlon. We had a tough time selecting just five examples of Carr’s work but simply couldn’t ignore the finishing chute tussle between former Kiwi Olympian Ryan Sissons and Kenji Nener before the Australian switched allegiance to Japan. Surely Nener is running interference?
💬 Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Oceania Championships at Mersey Bluff, Carr spoke of why Devonport is one of his favourite stops anywhere on the global circuit. “When I plan my Aussie triathlon season, Devonport is the first one I book in. Yes, there are the ‘glam’ triathlons like Noosa and Mooloolaba, but Devonport feels like visiting and seeing an old friend. It has changed a little since my first visit, but at the same time it has stayed the same. It’s hard to explain why I feel this way, perhaps due to the fond memories I have embedded in my brain or maybe due to the calm zen and karma that is in the air in Tasmania. The place and the race just feels right.”
🤱 Baby joy: British star Emma Pallant-Browne has praised the T100’s maternity leave policy after announcing she is expecting. The 35-year-old PTO No.14 said: “[This] will allow me to get back to racing and continues to elevate women in sport. I have so much I still want to do in sport but thank you to all the women who have shown it doesn’t end here, it just postpones the racing!”
😧 Taupo downer: Winning a mixed relay medal at the Paris Olympics, the inaugural T100 Triathlon World title and the Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Taupo cost Taylor Knibb a “piece of my soul in 2024”, the U.S. phenom has revealed.
🤝 Olympic ideals: New World Triathlon President Antonio Fernandez Arimany (left) has met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) supremo Thomas Bach (centre) to emphasise “the importance of the ongoing excellent collaboration with the IOC to enhance triathlon’s visibility and participation in future Olympic Games.” Outgoing WT President and IOC member Marisol Casado (right) will “continue to contribute to the Olympic Movement and the triathlon community,” the statement said.
🗓️ Mark your diary: World Triathlon has confirmed new end-of-season dates for World Cup’s in Brasilia and Vina del Mar, both originally scheduled for April.
🃏 Drawcard: Frenchman Dorian Conin, the 2023 world champion and a Tokyo mixed relay bronze medallist, is the latest big name confirmed for the Supertri E World Triathlon Championships in London on April 5.
🤖 Read – Tomorrow’s Triathlon in our AI world
🖥️ Watch – Taylor Knibb unchartered
🔥 Hot take – Can we finally have some tech with our triathlon. Please?
🚴♂️ Learn – Beginner, intermediate and advanced bike tips
💬 Who said that? The late, great boxing showman Muhammad Ali (Born: Jan 17, 1942 as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. Died: June 3, 2016).
🤔 Trivia: The answer is Paris Olympian Matthew Hauser and Ellie Hoitink. Hauser edged Tayler Reid and Brandon Copeland in Taupo while Ellie Hoitink led home Richelle Hill and Ainsley Thorpe.
