Four emerging Australian teenagers, inspired by triathlon’s elite, have won the second Triathlon Australia Mixed Relay Invitational on the Gold Coast today.
 
The foursome - Charlotte Derbyshire (SA), Oscar Dart (VIC), Emily Jamgotchian (NSW) and Lorcan Redmond (NSW), representing the Australia Gold team came from behind to beat Queensland No 1 and New Zealand in a exciting day’s racing at the Sports Super Centre at Runaway Bay.
 
It’s only the second time the event has been held, after Canada beat the USA and Australia filled the podium last year as the newly included Olympic event for Tokyo 2020 continues to become the buzz event of the triathlon world – and  with Australia ranked No 1 in the world in the current Olympic rankings.
 
The visiting Korean and New Zealand teams started out with a bang in the opening legs before the luckless Korean anchorman Jung Ki Kim crashed out of the race on the final bike leg.
 
It opened the door for the Australian Gold and Queensland Teams to come through and stamp their authority on the event with the plucky Kiwis also hanging on.
 
The event that started out with 16 teams and two heats in the morning was condensed into A and B finals in an afternoon of frantic exchanges through the short, sharp exiting Relay with each of the four team members completing a 300m M shaped swim in the Centre’s 50m Olympic Pool.
 
It was then a seven-kilometre bike –five laps of the Luke Harrop Memorial Criterium course behind Runaway Bay before a 1.5km run on the athletics track.
 
Derbyshire, a 2018 Youth Olympic representative in Buenos Aires where she won silver, admitted she was pretty tired after racing in Sunday’s Gold Coast Luke Harrop Memorial Sprint Championship.
 
“But I really wanted to do well for the team,” said Derbyshire, who has relocated from Adelaide to train in the Dan Atkins High Performance Squad on the Gold Coast.
 
“I was determined to have a good crack in what was a real fun event in a fun environment where there is not as much pressure as an individual race.
 
“It’s all about having fun and doing it for the team.”
 
Dart said he was trying hard the whole time, saying: “The ride was really hard for me, I was just hanging on the back, and in the run I was really tired.
 
“But these guys (Jamgotchian and Redmond) bought it home and that’s the thing about Team Relays – it’s not just you, you’ve got to do it for everyone.”
 
Jamgotchian said: “I had a lot of fun out there today, I was happy with my swim and then getting out on the bike I just gave it everything. 
 
“Every second counted. I knew the closer I could get to the leaders before the hand over to Lorcan was the key, I just gave it everything I had on the run.
 
“If we didn’t have Lorcan on our team I don’t know what would have happened. He definitely brought it home that’s for sure.”
 
Jamgotchian said she was greatly inspired for the leading Australian elites.
 
“You can really see how well they work together as a team and I think today we all came together as one. It was a really fun experience,” said Jamgotchian.
 
A humble 19-year-old Redmond, who cut his teeth in Newcastle as an outstanding Youth and Australian Junior Champion, is now with the Jamie Turner group, alongside the likes of Commonwealth Games Relay gold medallist Ashleigh Gentle and World Cup champion Declan Wilson.
 
“My job was only to build on what these guys had set and they put me in a really good position so I just had to finish it off,” said Redmond.
 
“I knew we could win and we did – that was the goal. 
 
“It’s an event you can win an Olympic medal in, you can win a world title, it’s just as important as the individual event and that’s why you can’t afford to make any mistakes and you have to recover well and back up after an individual event. 
 
“It was a fun day, a fun event and looking forward to more relays with these guys in the future. It’s a very familiar location, where we all competed in the Youth and Junior events here.”
 
And the final word on Australia’s Elite competitors such as Jacob Birtwhistle, Matt Hauser, Luke Willian and Ashleigh Gentle.
 
“They have served our country well, They’ve won the gold medals and it opens all the juniors eyes, that they maybe say ‘I don’t have the potential to win an individual medal but they could win a Team Relay medal and it’s something that specialists might come into and build on their strengths,” said Redmond.
 
The Australia Gold Team collected $2000 for their win thanks to a Triathlon Australia partnership with the City of Gold Coast with second place and $1000 going ton Queensland (Chloe McLennan, Luke Harvey, Richelle Hill and Lachlan Jones) with New Zealand Brea Roderick, Dawid Martin, Ari Graham and Sam Betham) taking third and $500.