Michelle Wu runs her way through the field to grab finish line honours at the 10th anniversary of the Huskisson Long Course Triathlon. Matilda Raynolds reports from within the race.
The Huskisson triathlon festival is the Noosa of the south. Huskisson is based on the NSW South Coast in the picturesque Jervis Bay five kilometres from Hyames Beach, which has been voted within the top five beaches in Australia. The Huskisson long course of 2/82/20 has been held here now for 10 years after starting with only 200 people is now a festival that attracts 2000 participants. The race is one that Elite Energy and race director Mark ‘Emo’ Emerton have worked vigorously to enhance the racer experience and really have turned it into a top tier event for all involved. Unfortunately this year the race was unable to attract many of the top tier professional triathletes that it has previously with Challenge Dubai only seven days later and potentially the hassle of the event being located three hours south of Sydney. But this event is a little similar to Ironman Australia, Port Macquarie where the event thrives and is dominated by age groupers, it would’ve been difficult to find a triathlete living in Sydney, Canberra and surrounds who wasn’t down there. This provides an unreal vibe, with the course lined with club tents and a multi lapped run and bike course providing plenty of entertainment.
Emo has always ensured that the female participants have been promoted, supported and celebrated over the past 10 years, with a separate women’s sprint race on the Saturday and this year for the first time the pro women were handed race number 1 – 10. A great initiative because why shouldn’t this be the case occasionally?
Unfortunately race week the bookies were thrown into a frenzy with the two top seeds in Liz Blatchford and Bek Keat announcing they would no longer be contesting the title. Clear skies met athletes on Sunday morning for a two-lap swim with pool like conditions. Lisa Marangon and Andrew Forrest broke early from the field followed by the main pack, which was slightly split being led by Polly Hendy (nee Mosely) and Jacqui Slack, being chased by Michelle Wu, myself, Jessica Simpson and Tegan Davies with Jessica Mitchell a further three minutes back. You really need to pick your pack early, yes it’s a two kilometre leg but the first few 100 metres determine where you will be sitting for the remainder 1700 metres. You either need to decide early to sit in, trying to get comfortable or you take the risk of either trying to bridge the gap, or missing the gap, and dragging the group around only gaining a few seconds but expanding a lot more energy.
(c) Paul Stanwix
Out onto the bike it is a fairly hilly 20 kilometre course, which athletes cover three times. The chase group that I was in from the swim stayed together through the first lap despite many a desperate attempt to break it up. Hendy was the first to drop off but the pack still weren’t making up any of the two minutes lost to Marangon and Forrest. At times the pace of our group was quite mediocre and I was getting nervous how much time we were losing, there can be a lot of surging on a course like this one – trying to keep the 12 metre distance but bunching on the hills and a lot of energy wasted trying to get away from one another rather than riding smoothly. We were all different types of riders – I would try to really attack the down hill and flat and at times successful in gapping the group, but I don’t ride the hills that hard and Wu, Simpson and Davies would slip by again. With all of them to the best of their ability trying to make a break up the hills. A number of times we were swamped by a group of age groupers again very mentally draining trying to race whilst trying to make your way through hordes of people and keep a distance with lots of back and forth. It was near the end of the last lap that a group of men joined us for the final five kilometres and with them had brought up Mitchell. For the whole last lap we had an official riding alongside us and it was becoming a little stressful with so many people around surging and blowing up on the hills. Whilst sitting in third overall I’d had enough and attempted to be the first into transition and in doing so with my head down got far too close to the back of an age groupers wheel and was immediately handed a yellow card with one kilometre to go on the bike. I was totally devastated but essentially at that moment I was cheating and my aspirations for a podium were dashed. So whilst I was sent to the sin bin for five minutes to talk about my life choices with two old ladies in the naughty corner the rest of the field rolled in four minutes down on Marangon and Forrest a time gap that was reflective of too much toing and froing and not enough charging.
The run course is one of the best around – a two lap scenic route along the beach with very enthusiastic support by spectators and volunteers. Whilst the men’s race was fairly locked in the women’s was changing every lap. Marangon called it a day after the first lap due to burning too many matches trying to drop Forrest on the ride, which put Forrest into the lead with a gap on the field. But Wu was on a mission and running on fire consistently holding four minute pace and moved her way through the field. It was an impressive performance by Wu across all three disciplines and she ran to the front of the race crossing the line first in a total time of 4:07.
“I was super happy to win Huski,” Wu says. “A huge thanks to Elite Energy and Mark Emerton for putting on one of the biggest and most impressive Huski Long Course races I’ve done. The new expo and set up was amazing! It did get quite crowded on the bike which frustrated me at times but overall it was a well run and organised race in a great location and I will be returning in 2016!”
Mitchell was the next to run through 90 seconds down and Forrest managed to hold onto the last step with a third a further minute back. Slack had ridden smart and made a nice transition from her off road expertise to come in fourth and Hendy running a 1:20 to put herself back into the prize money for fifth.
Massive congratulations to Emo and Elite Energy for the legacy they have created. I hope it continues to go from strength to strength. Be sure to make a long weekend of it for 2016!
Results
Michelle WU
4:07:14
0:23:31
2:20:08
1:20:29
Jessica MITCHELL
4:08:47
0:26:32
2:16:12
1:22:03
Andrea FORREST
4:09:40
0:21:54
2:16:52
1:28:11
Jacqui SLACK
4:13:01
0:22:50
2:20:53
1:26:26
Polly HENDY
4:16:01
0:22:48
2:29:28
1:20:17
Jessica SIMPSON
4:16:34
0:23:24
2:20:00
1:30:07
Tegan DAVIES
4:21:25
0:23:33
2:19:55
1:34:54
Matilda RAYNOLDS
4:25:03
0:23:33
2:24:55
1:33:39
Lisa MARANGON
0:00:00
0:21:52
2:16:43
DNF
Text by Matilda Raynolds – follow Raynolds on twitter here
Photos by Paul Stanwix and supplied