Jacqui Win’s Race & Ben Claims Australian Cross Tri Title…

It was a hard fought race which came down to a battle of wills on the final run leg as international greats Sam Osborne (NZL), Ben Allen (AUS), Jacqui Allen (GBR) and Penny Slater (AUS) jostled for position in Saturday’s Australian Cross Triathlon National Championships

The Australian Cross Triathlon National Championships hosted at Lake Crackenback Resort & Spa in the iconic Snowy Mountains of New South Wales challenged contenders with a course which has rapidly become renowned as the one of the toughest, challenging, and most rewarding courses on the international circuit, after playing host to the ITU World Championships in 2016.

It was team Allen who dominated the swim with Ben (NSW) leading out in a time of 17:27 with Gerard Wild (NSW) just two seconds off the pace and Osborne (NZL) right on their heels for the full distance of the 1,500m swim.  Jacqui Allen (GBR) led the female race finishing the swim in 19:16, 1 minute and 33 secs ahead of closest rival, Penny Slater (NSW) with Leela Hancox in third.

Men’s Race

With a blisteringly fast T1 transition from Osborne it was Allen and Osborne wheel to wheel heading into the 30km mountain bike leg which encompasses two alpine lakes, the Thredbo River, Kosciuszko National Park and spectacular views of the Thredbo Valley.  And that was how these two great athletes continued for the full 30km of the heart pumping flowing single track before heading into T2 recording a time of 1:20:54 and 1:20:56 respectively.  Brodie Gardner (Qld) made a big comeback on the mountain bike to pull into third in a time of 1:23:57.

Into T2 and this was where Osborne made his move on Allen gaining a full 15 seconds in transition heading into the run leg and from this point he never looked back taking line honors in 2:23:38. Allen, who lost all his nutrition in an unfortunate collision on the bike finished a fighting second in 2:27:44 and as first Australian across the line regained his national title.  Brodie Gardiner finished across the line in third in 2:37:52 and Jacob Storey (Vic) finished fourth overall and taking the silver in the Australian Title.

Women’s Race

In the women’s race, Slater started to make up ground on Allen who finished the leg in a time of 1:34:16. Slater managed to pull back 20 seconds on her mentor to record a time of 1:33:56, while Hancox also put in a strong performance in a time of 1:36:20.

Jacqui Allen demonstrated her domination on the run leg with a 57:14 split to hold onto the lead from Slater who recorded a 58:06 run time.  Overall Allen took the line honours in a time of 2:52:13 with Slater finishing second across the line and claiming the Australian National Title with Hancox in third and Maeve Kennedy (NSW) taking the bronze in the Australian Title.