Copeland’s second has Tokyo on the radar
KINGSCLIFF triathlete Brandon Copeland’s first World Cup podium has given him added belief the Tokyo Olympic Games could be possible.
Copeland finished second to Brisbane-based Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk in Saturday’s Mooloolaba World Cup in the best result of the 22year-old’s career so far.
“The Olympics is always on everyone’s radar but that (today’s result) makes it a little bit more realistic for me and hopefully the selectors will take a bit of notice of that result,” Copeland said.
Copeland was part of a large pack that exited the 1500m swim around the same time before forming a group of 40 on the 40km bike ride.
He trailed Mislawchuk, New Zealand’s Sam Ward and German Valentin Wernz going into the run and pegged two of them back before finishing behind the eventual winner.
“I’m absolutely over the moon with that one. It’s my second time here in the World Cup and last year I had a bit of a shocker, so I’d like to think I have learnt a lot from it and I was able to put that in practice this year and it sort of all came together for me,” Copeland said.
“I had my whole family here cheering, a heap of my squad mates and my coach – you can’t have much better support than that, so it was awesome to have a great result in front of everyone.
“It’s my best result by far. It’s my first World Cup podium – the best until today was a fifth place.”
Olympian Ashleigh Gentle won her maiden Mooloolaba World Cup crown after previously securing second and a third as she eyes the Tokyo test event in August, where an automatic place at the Olympic Games will be up for grabs.