Triathletes revved up in carpark
CARPARK training sessions have Australia’s best triathletes primed for the ITU World Championships this weekend.
Gold Coast-based paratriathlete Katie Kelly will chase a second world title today before the elite men and women take to the line tomorrow in the Netherlands.
Triathlon Australia coach Dan Atkins, who runs the under-23 and paratriathlon program on the Gold Coast, has had his team training alongside the country’s elite competitors in Spain to prepare for the world titles.
Atkins said it was a risk that had paid off and revealed how fellow coach Jamie Turner had put the group through a carpark training session to prepare for a bike course that will have 120 turns each lap.
“The carpark session was set up specific to Rotterdam and I wanted to expose them to that and watch the elites before the para team started throwing themselves all over the course, much to the amazement of the elites,” Atkins said.
“The Rotterdam course will have 120 turns per lap and we had some 30 turns every 90 seconds, assimilating that course.
“(It was about) really trying to make sure these athletes are set up for this race – from the clothing they’ll wear to the weather they’ll expect.”
Triathlon Australia opted to drive the juniors and paratriathletes from Spain to Rotterdam early this week to avoid an airline misplacing their bikes, something that happened to under-23 competitors Matt Hauser, Jaz Hedgeland, Lorcan Redmond and Jess Claxton in the past fortnight.