NZ medals at Youth Olympics

New Zealand has shown there is a bright future beyond Bevan Docherty and Sam Warriner with some great performances at the Youth Olympics Festival in Sydney today with the highlight being Jos Hoetjes bronze medal in the men’s race.

The Games are for athletes aged U19 and attract thousands of athletes from around the world. With Great Britain and Australia amongst strong teams in both men’s and women’s races, the competition in triathlon was especially hot, as was the weather in Sydney.

Tri NZ U23 and Youth High Performance Manager Stephen Sheldrake was delighted with the efforts of all six athletes, saying the represented the silver fern with pride and distinction.

“Jos has done incredibly well to medal in a high class field while Auckland’s Teresa Adams effort in finishing 6th at such an early stage in her career is equally impressive. For all of our athletes to finish inside the top 16 though is fantastic and just as importantly they will all have learned a great deal about racing in elite company in a high pressure environment.”

Hoetjes was delighted to medal.

“It was very exciting and a cool medal to get. The weather was a lot cooler today and I felt good during the race. Only in the last 1k did I didn’t feel as good. But it was still sweet to win bronze.”

Alistair Brownlee from Great Britain won gold from Appleton (Aus) in the men’s race. Further details and results will be available at www.olympic.org.nz

Jos Hoejtes (Chch) 3rd, Tom Davison (Chch) finished 7th, Edward Rawles (Chch) 12th and in the women’s Teresa Adam came in 6th, Sophie Corbidge (Auck) 14th and Rebecca Kingsford (Tirau) 16th.

The teams race is tomorrow in Sydney, with the same six athletes representing New Zealand.