Cameron Good and Ashleigh Gentle get first ITU points of 2011 at the Devonport Triathlon

Cameron Good and Ashleigh Gentle have shown they are looking for a big 2011 after taking out the Devonport Triathlon in the ITU Elite & Under 23 category. The race had the swim leg cancelled which seems to be a common theme lately with the 2010 Canberra half Ironman and also the 70.3 in Peru the other week both also having their swim legs cancelled.

This change does not suit athletes like Lisa Marangon who missed the chance to use her very strong swim and bike to get her in to a position to run a strong last leg. Ashleigh’s first run leg in the race was incredibly fast and put her in a position to hold off the rest of the field and placed her far enough ahead of Chile’s Riveros Diaz who is known for her run.

Ashleigh was a very close second to Caroline Steffen at the 2010 Noosa triathlon missing out on first place by 4 seconds after running a very quick 34min for the 10kms. Ashleigh also won the 2010 ITU World Championship age group sprint triathlon in Budapest in September. She was the fastest female overall with a time of 57:50 and a 5km run of 16:41.

In the men’s race Cameron Good had a strong first run, solid bike and brought it home with a very quick last 2.5km run. Cameron has written a race report which follows.

Full results are below Cameron’s race report.

Race Report

by Cameron Good

Race Report Devonport ITU Oceania Sprint Championships

For the first race of the season I headed down to Devonport, Tasmania, to compete in the Oceania Sprint distance championships. Being an ITU points race, points gained in this race go towards your overall world ranking.

Since this was the first race of the season it was good to have a hit out and see if I’m on the right track with training and also try and grab some ITU points.

Upon arrival into Davenport the weather was not great and we were told that it had not been for the past few days. The conditions were so bad that the organisers were forced to call off the swim leg and turn the event into a duathlon (5km run, 20km bike, 2.5km run) as there was too much pollution in the river we were meant to be swimming in.

I had not done a duathlon before and therefore was not sure how to approach race. However, since the run is normally my strength I was not too concerned.

The race was not held until 6.30pm, which is quite late for our sport and hence we did a lot of sitting around on Saturday. This certainly did not help the nerves.

The plan of attack was to try and sit in the front pack for the first 5km and be as relaxed as possible to set up a good bike split and then a fast last 2.5km run. For the first of four run laps I stuck to my initial plan. However, coming around the turn for the second lap I was feeling good and noticing that it was still quite a big pack of guys I decided to pick up the pace to attempt to split up the pack. I pushed the turn and when I looked back I realised that I had a little gap on the pack and decided to hold the pace a bit longer in the hope someone would come with me and possibly form a little break away. Unfortunately, no one came across so I settled into a comfortable pace to get ready for a fast bike.

I came into transition with a solid gap on the main pack, which now consisted of about 8-10 guys. It was very windy and I made the decision early that I would just cruise the first bit of the bike, get my breath back and cycling legs going and wait for the pack to catch me. The pack caught me and not long after another guy attacked. I jumped across the gap with two other guys and we worked well together to extend the gap to about 45 sec over the final two and a half laps. As I had not been riding much in training I was not feeling as strong as I normally do and was not sure how my legs were going to feel once onto the run.

I had a sluggish transition and had to close a small gap. It was the first hard run off the bike in a long time and I was pleased to find that I still had my running legs and was able to push hard, extending my lead throughout the run to cross the line in first position.

I am very happy and somewhat surprised with my race as it is very early in the season and I was uncertain as to where I was at in terms of fitness. A big thanks to Trek Bikes, Renegade cycles, Smith optics, Skinfit and Skins for all your help.

Race Website