Grace Musgrove in Stunning Sprint Win in Geelong

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Former NSW champion swimmer and Cross Country runner Grace Musgrove showed why she has a stunning future in the world of triathlon, winning her first National title on debut at the URBAN Geelong ITU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup in Geelong yesterday.

Formerly of Mittagong, southwest of Sydney and now in Wollongong, the 20-year-old member of Triathlon Australia’s National Talent Academy finished second to Kiwi Sophie Corbidge but was crowned Australian champion as the first Aussie to cross the line.

In only her second year in triathlon and in her first elite open race and the first time in Geelong, the former NSW Age group 5km and 10km open water swimming champion and Under 20 Australian Cross Country champion is one of a group of emerging young Australian stars on the horizon.

Discovered by NSWIS coach Jamie Turner at the 2010 Australian Day Aquathon in Wollongong she originally turned down Turner’s recruitment but finally joined his talented young quad after finishing her Year 12 Studies.

“People kept telling me I could do it but I am still shocked that I am standing here in my first elite triathlon having won the Australian championship,” said Musgrove.

“After winning those swimming events I turned my attention to running and I always wanted to be a runner and not a triathlete.

“But when I saw Jamie’s squad of Natalie Van Coevorden, Tamsyn Moana-Veale and Ashlee Bailie and Charlotte McShane I went and asked him if I could join and here I am.”

Next stop Devonport in two weeks time when she races her training partners.

Breakaway biker Gillian Backhouse (1:02.19) ran herself to collapse to finish a spirited fourth and second in the Australian Championship ahead of WA’s reigning Australian Youth Olympic Festival gold medallist, reigning Australian junior champion and another National Talent Academy athlete Jaz Hedgeland (1:02.25) and London Olympian Emma Jackson (1:02.31).

Jackson admitted she had no expectations coming into the race and although she felt good in the swim, coming out of the water in fourth place, she had “nothing in the tank” for the rest of the race.

Corbidge, who is coached by her mum Dawn in Auckland and has just been named in the New Zealand Development squad for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio was happy to make her move on run after Australia’s Gillian Backhouse led the field off the bike and into the run.

She sat comfortably in the eight-strong chase pack alongside fellow Kiwi Maddie Dillon and Rebecca Clarke, Japan’s Yuko Takahashi and Australian girls Musgrove, Hedgeland, Jackson, swim leader Madison Allen and Sarah Deuble.

And it was obvious why the New Zealand selectors have sleighted Corbidge (1:01.52) for their Rio plans when she charged away with the fastest run of the day (17 minutes 02 secs) to hold off 20-year Musgrove (1:02.03) who finished with the silver with Takahashi (1:02.16) third.

Corbidge said she enjoyed the Geelong course and she was thrilled to take the win across the Tasman, saying “it (the course) was a bit of a mix of everything and quite technical.”

“We got into a good rhythm and worked well together around the corners and the run was awesome,” said Corbidge.

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