CHALLENGER SERIES - PERTH

TA Challenger Series Round 6 - Perth

After a mixed season of results, Jenni and I headed over to Perth to gain some much needed points to qualify for the Gold Coast Worlds. With a DNF at Canberra, after not looking after myself properly post heavy training block and Jindabyne Camp, I didn’t have any points at all so needed some good results in the last two races. 

Race morning I felt good and with a long wait till my wave start it was good to watch Jenni racing well and being up near the front of her wave midway through the bike. I got in a good swim warm up and from the gun felt strong and relaxed exiting the water with the main contenders about a minute down on one athlete. 

Onto the bike and about the 10km mark I tried to get away but was caught coming back into town so settled into the main group with 3 other guys making sure I was prepared for a big run. I was a little sloppy in T2 but quickly caught the other guys and then attacked to try and break them early. I was caught again at the 2km mark and immediately surged to get the break that I needed to stick. At about the 5km mark I felt really strong passing the leader and ended up running all the way to the line to claim my first Olympic Distance National Title and securing my spot for the Gold Coast.

After years of trying to win an OD title it was really satisfying to get the result. Since qualifying for the Long Course Worlds in Huskisson I wasn’t sure if I had the speed to get there but the base I did earlier in the year and the long course training really benefited me on race day, as after a pretty tough bike leg my legs felt great!

Cheers to Mark for the guidance this year and for bringing me up to another level. I’m really looking forward to racing on the Gold Coast with the rest of the crew and excited about the training and hard work ahead. Thanks also to the HERT gang for the training in Sydney over December/January, especially bike camp, and for helping me to reach new highs.

Finally thanks to Jenni for getting me through every week of training in Melbourne and making me work in the pool. She has been improving so much in the last few months with some consistent training and it will be exciting to both race on the Gold Coast come September and fight it out again for the swim prime bragging rights!

Cheers,

Troy.

	Name	Pos	Cat	Cat Pos	Time	Swim	Cycle	Run
1	Troy Drinan	10	M30-34	1	1:55:10	20:21	50:04	35:43
2	Grant Fuzi	183	M40-44	21	2:07:35	23:08	1:02:33	41:51
3	Kevin Minett	195	F35-39	24	2:08:17	24:55	1:03:10	40:10
4	Jenni Erskine	240	F25-29	9	2:10:24	20:47	1:06:44	42:50

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