Dillon 8th at Youth Olympic Games

New Zealand’s Maddie Dillon has raced superbly to finish in 8th place at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this afternoon, finishing less than two minutes behind winner Yuka Sato from Japan.

The Contact Schools champion swam and rode superbly over the Singapore course in humid conditions but lost ground during the 5km run. The 16 year old showed tremendous courage though to hold on for a top ten finish against the best 32 young triathletes in the world, almost all of whom are older than Dillon who is at the entry level of the age group for Youth Olympic representation.

An example of that experience is that winner Sato has already raced in five ITU World Champs Series events and won an Asian Cup event this year and is tipped for big things in the future.

Dillon will now head to the Tri NZ high performance base in Europe, before racing at the ITU World Championships in Budapest next month. Meanwhile Aaron Barclay (Gore) races in the men’s triathlon tomorrow at 1pm NZT.

Youth Olympic Games Triathlon
Women
750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run

1. Yuka Sato (JPN) 1:00:49
2. Ellie Salthouse (AUS) 1:01:04
3. Kelly Whitley (USA) 1:01:13
4. Adriana Barraza (MEX) 1:01:48
5. Eszter Dudas (HUN) 1:01:55
6. Fanny Beisaron (ISR) 1:02:07
7. Marlene Gomez (GER) 1:02:27
8. Maddie Dillon (NZL) 1:02:34
9. Laura Casey (IRL) 1:02:40
10. Monika Orazem (SLO) 1:03:09