260 of Australia’s most promising young triathletes will converge on the Gold Coast this weekend to kick start the 2018-19 Australian Junior and Youth Triathlon Series, and the first race of Triathlon Australia’s Performance Calendar.
The popular and unique Super Sprint Race weekend at Runaway Bay, with the support of the City of Gold Coast, has again attracted the cream of emerging athletes from around Australia.
The Super Sprint Race weekend is the first round in the Junior and Youth Series and an exciting start to the season for the juniors. The event is an ideal pathway event that presents some great opportunities to learn but also have some fun.
The Australian Junior and Youth Triathlon Series will continue in Canberra with the Capital Trilogy Triathlon (January 19–20) and the Devonport Triathlon (March 2-3).
Triathlon Australia’s National Performance Director Justin Drew knows just how important these races are for athlete development.
“The Super Sprint Race weekend is a key junior racing opportunity on our calendar. It allows for multiple formats and experiences, and subsequently for young athletes to learn, grow and have fun against their peers,” said Drew.
“Most of our current crop of senior National Team members have come through this series, and with the addition of Mixed Relay to the Olympic program, the inclusion of this format over the weekend provides another exciting opportunity for our developing athletes.”
The Gold Coast, who have successfully hosted both the Commonwealth Games in April and ITU World Championships in September, is a logical location to commence the 2018-19 racing season.
The City of Gold Coast are proud to continue their support for the Triathlon Australia Junior and Youth Race Series event at Runaway Bay as triathlon continues to have strong links with the iconic coastal location.
With the addition of the Triathlon Mixed Relay in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic program, this format will also be included in this weekend’s events, as well at the Canberra and Devonport events, with Canberra hosting the Australian National Junior and Youth Mixed Team Relay Championships. This season the Mixed Relay format will also provide points to the athlete’s overall pointscore for the weekend, highlighting the importance of this event as part of the overall format.
Triathlon Australia’s Mixed Relay Invitational event will also be held at the same Gold Coast venue on March 23-24th, and forms part of the overall Performance Calendar, providing another opportunity for Junior athletes to refine their skills and race alongside the U23 and Elite competitors.
Taking line honours on the first day of events at the World Championship in September, current 16-19 World Champion, Queensland’s Chloe McLennan, will be part of the Junior field this weekend and no doubt a key contender in this year’s series.
Third in last year’s series and part of the Junior World Championship team, Emily Jamgotchian (NSW), will also be one to look out for as well as Richelle Hill (QLD) who came fourth to Chloe at the World Championships and has moved up a category this season.
Also moving up from the Youth A to Junior category this season is Ethan Stretton (TAS), Daniel Kempson (WA), James Olsen-Keating (NSW) and Lachlan Medway (QLD) who placed top four in the Youth A category last season, respectively. They join Oscar Dart (VIC) who placed fifth in the Junior category last season and 2017 Junior Cross Triathlon World Champion, Alec Davison (WA) to form a highly competitive Junior field.
The Queensland trilogy who took a clean sweep of the Youth B podium last season, Thomas Feldmann, Jackson Medway will be aiming to continue their dominance in the Youth A category.
For many of the Youth B competitors the weekend provides them a chance to test their skills against the best in the country across an action packed weekend of racing from Thursday through to Sunday.
The Junior athletes points will include all three races in the series towards the overall series point score whilst Youth athletes series points will be counted from two out of three races, with the Australian Championships in Devonport attracting double points for both categories.
Junior athletes will be in contention for the highly contested Athlete Bursary. Athletes (male and female) that place 1st 2nd and 3rd in the Junior series will receive $1500 (1st), 2nd ($750) and 3rd ($500) to contribute towards further competition opportunities overseas.
The event will be livestreamed via http://live.ssrw.com.au.
For live streaming times click here
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