Royle crowned Oceania king after frantic sprint finish

Posted in Other News

DOWNLOAD RESULTS CLICK HERE

Triathlon Australia, March 2, 2014: Being an early nomination for the Australian Commonwealth Games team for Glasgow doesn’t mean your mates are going to let you sit back and enjoy the ride – they’re going to push you to the limit and keep you honest.

And that’s just what happened in a thrilling finish to the final race on a busy day’s racing at yesterday’s Devonport Triathlon, which also doubled as the Australian and Oceania Olympic Distance Championships in the elite men and women.

Devonport-KH-Aaron-Royle-finish

The boys left the best till last with Newcastle-born Wollongong-based 2014 Commonwealth Games nomination Aaron Royle out-sprinting the inform Melbourne-based Queenslander and Australian team mate Ryan Fisher.

Canberra’s San Diego-based Declan Wilson, last year’s ITU World Championship Under 23 bronze medallist, finished third with Launceston’s Youth Olympic gold medallist Jacob Birtwhistle finishing seventh in the elite category in his first ITU Olympic Distance race and was second to Wilson in the Under 23s, with ever present NSW Central Coaster Matt Baker a close-up third in an all National Talent Academy finish.

Birtwhistle, who suffered soft tissue bruising and a head cold heading into the race admitted he was “hurting” over the longer 10 kilometre run but would be better for the experience.

But it was Royle and Fisher who locked horns with a real shoulder to shoulder tussle over the final kilometre with Royle holding his line on the inside to dig deep and race away for a thrilling victory.

Devonport-KH-Aaron-Royle

“No matter what I did he (Fisher) just wouldn’t leave me alone,” said Royle, who has finished second on two previous occasions in Devonport.

“I thought to myself I don’t want to come to Devonport and finish second again. Third time lucky this time - I’ve got to win this one.

“It wasn’t easy, coming down to that last 50 metres. There was a little bit of hustle and bustle, we both wanted that inside line but I just managed to hold him out. Once I came round that corner first that gave me the advantage to get to the line first.

“I wanted a hard race today. When you come up against the Brownlee brothers and Gomez and those kind of guys they are not easy races. So you want to try and emulate these races as much as possible.

“I decided with about two kilometres to go that I just didn’t have the legs in me and I was going to save myself for a sprint finish. I decided just to keep that tempo going so Ryan still had to work to catch me but I backed it off a little bit, to save for that sprint finish. It really hurt…today it hurt a lot.”

Royle said he and Fisher had been on camps and teams together for a real long time and it was good to see him going well.

“He would be the first to admit he didn’t have the best season last year but he has shown he has hit some good form and is ready to try for that Commonwealth Games team,” said Royle, who admitted he came to Devonport with no expectations after suffering a minor calf tear in January

“I had a couple of weeks out so I have come into this race with no expectations, I had no idea how I was going to go, I am actually quite pleased that I’m in decent form right now.”

ssued on behalf of Triathlon Australia
Ian Hanson
Hanson Media Group

FOLLOW HMG NEWS & EVENTS ON TWITTER/LIVE UPDATES