Newcastle’s former star junior, Lorcan Redmond, used a combination of relaxation and people power to break through for his first elite victory in today’s Mooloolaba Triathlon Oceania Cup.
 
And it earned the 21-year-old automatic selection on the Under 23 Australian Triathlon Team for this year’s World Championships in Abu Dhabi in November.
 
The Gold Coast-based Redmond will be joined on the Australian Team by today’s second placed finisher, WA’s Wollongong-based Luke Bates, who earned the second automatic spot up for grabs.
 
Third home was 2018 Commonwealth Games representative Luke Willian who like Redmond and Bates, will use today’s race as the pre-curser to the April 3 Gold Coast Triathlon (Sprint Distance) and the first nomination race for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
 
Today’s course consisted of a 1.5km swim across Mooloolaba Beach before embarking on a 40km bike and a 10km run with Redmond very much in control of his race as it wound through the Mooloolaba streets in the ideal early morning conditions.
 
And with the crucial run leg and an encouraging third place behind team mate Matt Hauser over the Oceania Cup sprint distance in Devonport a fortnight ago, Redmond was hungry to improve today.
 
He bided his time through the first eight kilometres of the run – setting up a powerful finish - as the field set itself up for the final run stretch south, down the Mooloolaba hill from Alexandra Headlands.
 
“I’ve got all my family here, all mates here, my room mate here and the whole Dan Atkins crew drove up last night and others first thing this morning, it’s really cool to get everyone out here and cheering us on; I’m stoked with the win,” said Redmond.

“I’ve had a few years off with injuries but I’m back and ready to hit the air hard and the race today panned out just the way I wanted it to.
 
“My big goal was to come here today and get that automatic qualifying spot; I have not won an Elite race yet so that was my first Elite win too.
 
“The key for me today was to stay relaxed the whole way and to hit those critical moments (and the major one) for me was the last two kilometers in the run.
 
“I’m good mates with Luke Bate, so I was stoked to see him get on the podium too.”
 
Redmond will now head to Coolum under Triathlon Australian Gold Coast-based performance coach Dan Atkins, admitting he wasn’t getting carried away or too far ahead of himself.
 
“I’ll just be taking each day as it is and we’ll just see how the year goes,” said Redmond.