Sexton Looks To Sea Change For Triathlon Turner-round

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Triathlon, February 20, 2013: London Olympian and defending champion Brendan Sexton will return to Tasmania for Saturday’s 2013 OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Championships in Devonport for his first race since the disappointment of last year’s ITU World Championships in Auckland.

The Oceania Championships will be the highlight of a full day’s racing at one of Australia’s longest standing Triathlons that will also feature the National Junior Triathlon Championships and Olympic Distance Age Group Championships.

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For the Juniors and the Age Groupers it will double as major selection races for the 2013 ITU London World Triathlon Championships in September and the third race in the Scody Australian Junior Triathlon Series.

But for 27-year-old Maitland-born Sexton, Saturday will be the start of a new chapter in his Elite career after some serious soul searching following his 35th-place finish in his Olympic debut and 30th in the ITU Auckland World Championship grand final.

Sexton knew he had to make changes as he prepares for the next four year cycle leading into the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro – which had always been his major goal.

He was the lone Australian Olympic male to back up in Auckland last year and after crashing on the brutal, rain and windswept Auckland course, returned home to a new program.

Enter Wollongong-based Triathlon Australia coach Jamie Turner who stepped in after Sexton’s Olympic campaign as he prepared for his Auckland tilt – and who planned a fresh start for the former Melbourne-based athlete.

First there was the Mark Webber Challenge, with no training under his belt and then two-and-half months of altitude training at Falls Creek, which had so often been his pre-season training base.

“We both knew after London that he had to make some changes and primarily to his swimming and to his overall outlook on the sport if he was to become competitive on the world stage,” said Turner.

“You can’t give away the kind of time he was giving away before the start of the bike and expect to be there at the end of the run.

“And it was all about going back to the basics, back to the fundamentals of swimming and we’ve worked hard at trying to improve his stroke, looking at his catch and rotation in the knowledge that speed is a product of efficiency.

“We are seeing improvements in the pool although I expect it will take some time before we see those improvements in his triathlon but importantly, Brendan is now happy in the water and that’s a positive thing.”

But Turner is not looking to rush Sexton or his training partner and fellow Mark Webber challenger ITU Under 23 World champion Aaron Royle, saying 2013 will be a “building year” – peaking at this year’s ITU World Championships in London.

The pair will be joined by a third training partner in Devonport, in Australian Under 23 representative Ryan Bailie, who paved the way for Royle’s world championship win in the hilly Auckland bike course last October.

Add another Australian team mate from that break-through Under 23 race in Ryan Fisher, the recently crowned Australian Sprint Champion (in Geelong) and last year’s Noosa Triathlon winner Peter Kerr, Queensland’s former Elite Squad member Dan Wilson, who returns after a run of injuries and leading American Matt Chrabot (second placed American on last year’s ITU World Series with his 36th place overall) and Devonport presents an exciting field.

And while Sexton will contest both the ITU Mooloolaba World Cup (March 16,l 17) and the opening round of the ITU World Championships in Auckland (April 6,7), Royle will start his Olympic distance campaign in Auckland before heading to the US for round two in San Diego (April 20, 21).

Sexton is one of a group of nine athletes in the new-look Turner stable that has a second Olympian in its ranks in 26-year-old American Gwen Jorgensen, who also discovered the Turner group after the disappointment of London, when a flat tire ruined any chance she may have had of showing her wares on her trade mark 10km run leg.

The Wisconsin native made the move after finishing second to Olympic silver medallist Lisa Norden (SWE) in last year’s ITU World Championship grand final in Auckland which gave her a top 10 finish overall.

And Turner says being one of the best Elite runners on the ITU circuit has been a positive effect on his group of young charges – four of whom represented Australia in the Juniors/Under 23s at the ITU World titles.

“Gwen was looking for an environment where she could improve her front end (swim/bike) which would allow her to best utilise her best weapon (the run),”said Turner.

“The oldest athletes in NSW are people like Charlotte McShane and Natalie Van Coevorden at around 21, 22 because most of them, like the Emma Moffatt’s head to Queensland.

“So to have Gwen come in has been a positive for the rest of my girls.”

Turner will also have McShane, Van Coevorden and the 2013 Australian Sprint Champion from Geelong, 20-year-old Grace Musgrove in the small but select Elite field that also includes Australia’s 2011 winner of this race, Gold Coast-based Ashleigh Gentle (15th in last year’s ITU World Series) – who also has an outstanding run.

Throw in Northern Ireland’s leading triathlete 2012 Olympian Aileen Reid (nee Morrison) and Great Britain’s Canberra-based Jodie Stimpson (5th ITU World Championship grand final, Auckland) and it certainly bolsters the women’s field.

Saturday’s Time Table:
8am – Australian Age Group Triathlon Championships
11.30am – ITU Junior Women
12.45 – ITU Junior Men
2:15 – Elite and Under 23 Women
3:30 – Elite and Under 23 Men
5pm – Presentations (Devonport SLSC)

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Issued on behalf of Triathlon Australia by

Ian Hanson

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