Juniors put Taupo¯ on the triathlon map at nationals
Strong showing at secondary schools
While Taupo¯ was focusing on Ironman NZ, Taupo¯ junior triathletes had their eyes on the National Secondary Schools Triathlon Championships in New Plymouth on Sunday, March 28.
A contingent of 12 juniors made the trip, well prepared by their Tri Sport Taupo¯ junior coach Cameron Paul, coming back with a number of medals and good placings to celebrate.
The event kicked off with the U12 and U13 indivdual races (200m swim/ 5.3km bike/ 2km run), where Kian Weston in the U12 Boys and Olivia Shepherd in the U12 Girls both finished third to win a bronze medal. Oliver Barnett finished in a strong fourth place in the U13 Boys race, narrowly missing the podium, while Antonia Shepherd was 12th in the U13 Girls race and Eliot Webber 15th in the U13 Boys race.
Sophie Webber started in the U14 category (300m swim/ 10km bike/ 3km run). Some good racing saw her finishing strongly in third, winning the bronze medal, while Leah Kilmister (swimming and running) and Victoria Barrett (cycling) started in the teams event, where they won the title in the all female category.
In the competitive U16 category Sasha Parize-Baker finished in a very respectable 12th place with Ashton Upfold in 16th.
Ivan Abele and Alex Brackenbury started in their last Schools Championships in the U19 category (750m swim/18.5km bike/5km run). Both were freshly named in the Triathlon New Zealand North Island Development Squad ahead of the race. The U19 Schools race was held in conjunction with an Open Junior race, which meant the race also featured Juniors, who are not at school anymore. In this race Ivan had a good swim, but some lost time in transition made him ride on his own in fourth place. Alex had a strong bike leg, where he eventually caught up with Ivan and they started the run in fifth and sixth place. Unfortunately, neither felt well on the run leg and in the end Ivan finished in seventh and Alex in 15th place of the Open Junior race.
With this result Ivan was third in the Secondary Schools Championship category to win a bronze medal, while Alex was 10th in the schools category.
The afternoon continued with the four-person relay teams championships (4 x 200m swim/3km bike/1km run), where each team member has to complete a full short triathlon before tagging their team-mates. In this event the U13 Mixed Team from Taupo¯ Intermediate with Olivia Shepherd, Kian Weston, Antonia Shepherd and Oliver Barnett won their category and the national title, beating teams from much bigger schools like St Kentigern’s in Auckland and St Peter’s in Cambridge in the process.
Congratulations to all the Taupo Juniors and big thanks to Tri Sport Taupo¯ and Cameron Paul for the coaching, and the parents for all their support in getting their children to events like this.