MARK Windsor picked up his third age group victory at the Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival on Sunday and in the process ensured his place at this September’s World Championships Olympic distance event.
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Windsor had already booked his ticket to the World Championships’ sprint race – with victory on the Gold Coast earlier this year – but a win in Sunday’s Olympic distance race would earn him another start against the world’s best triathletes.
Once Windsor conquered the Mooloolaba surf and got himself on two wheels another victory in the 55-59 years category never looked in doubt.
He completed the 1.5 kilometre swim, 40km bike leg and 10km run in a time of two hours and nine minutes.
Windsor finished with the fastest bike leg (at 40.8 km/h) and the second fastest run (4:03 per km) in his age group.
His 40km on the bike was also the 10th fastest overall.
“I really do love this race and I’ve managed to have a good record in it. It’s uniquely Australian with its surf swim and it’s become such a big event with four to five thousand competitors,” Windsor said of the event, which doubled as the Australian Championships for age group athletes.
“It wasn’t a bad swim for me. I got through the surf fine, which is something you can’t really train for in Bathurst. To not be far off a lot of the stronger swimmers was really good.
“There always seems to be a crosswind on the ride. Normally it wouldn’t favour me, being a fast and flat course. I usually use hills to my advantage. The conditions suited me though with that wind.
“I ran controlled because I knew I had a good lead, so I ran it to my pace.”
Windsor was full of praise for fellow Bathurst competitor Josh Stapley.
Stapley journeyed to Mooloolaba searching for improvement after a sixth place in his previous World Championships qualifying event in Canberra.
He finished 13th in the 20-25 years age group with his time of 2:12:07.
“Josh was a bit nervous and had a few demons to conquer,” Windsor said.
“He got some great points out of this race. With this race being the national championships it was worth double points, which gave him as much as winning a normal race.
“He might have liked a spot higher so he’ll be looking for more points at Wollongong this weekend.”
The swim at Mooloolaba ended up being Stapley’s strongest leg. His time of 21:11 put him sixth in his category.
The bike leg also put Stapley inside the top 10 for his age group while the run leg was once again a tougher affair for the Bathurst competitor – but it was still a step forward from his showing at Canberra.
Stapley said the result has set himself up well for Wollongong.
“I’m satisfied with the result. It’s not as high as I would have liked but at the end of the day I gave it my all and my legs had nothing left,” he said.
“I’d done the Cole Classic swim last year but the surf conditions were much worse at Mooloolaba, especially in the days leading up to it.
“There was a lot of chop and swell but I’ve always been a good surf swimmer, and at the end of the race I was happy with that leg.”
