Hoetjes leads Kiwi charge with gold at Aussie Champs

In a year when the focus of the Triathlon community is firmly fixed on the Olympic Games and the hopes of our leading athletes, Triathlon New Zealand has thrown up another set of world class performances from a clutch of young athletes at the Australian Sprint Nationals in Hobart today.

They were led by Christchurch teenager Jos Hoetjes with a stunning victory in the elite U19 men’s race, backing up from his runner up finish at the New Zealand Championships in Kinloch a fortnight ago.

Hoetjes today reversed the result at Kinloch, this time out sprinting Australian Jamie Hugget to a coveted Australian National Title.

Tri NZ U19/U23 High Performance Manager Stephen Sheldrake was in Hobart with the team and rated Hoetjes performance highly.

“This was a great race and a great result for a very promising young athlete. Any Australian title is one to cherish but in particular their elite junior titles with the Aussies typically dominating at World Championships over the past ten years or so.”

“Jos didn’t have a great swim and had to work hard to get on the lead group but once there did loads of work on the bike, I thought maybe too much. But once the lead group of 15 or 20 athletes hit the run Jos and Jamie immediately put the foot down and distanced the field and then of course, Jos controlled the final run in and won by a couple of seconds.”

Hoetjes wasn’t the only one to shine with relative newcomer to the national scene Edward Rawles finishing a highly creditable 8th overall. This result is all the more impressive for an athlete that has only recently come to the attention of Tri NZ when you consider he is 16 years old and has three more years in the age group.

Hoetjes himself has one further year in the U19 age group but for now will focus on the World Championships later in the year, an event that Sheldrake says he should feel confident about.

“Jos is a very good all round athlete, good swimmer, biker and runner with no real weakness. This result indicates that top ten is not out of the question at the World’s, where inside that top ten will depend very much on Jos and how sharp he is on the day.”

In the U19 women’s race Nicola MacKay raced well to finish a strong fifth on the back of an impressive run leg. MacKay struggled at Kinloch with illness but looked to be closer to her best form in Hobart and is another that will approach the World Championships with confidence.

Of the other New Zealanders provisionally Flossie van Dyke finished 8th, Rebecca Kingsford 10th, Tracey Steens 12th, Nicole Silver 17th, Meagan Blackett 18th while Shea Reardon and Jessica Roets were lapped out of the race during the bike leg.

Full and official results were not available at this time but will be posted to www.triathlon.org.nz when made available out of Hobart.