ALEXANDER THE KING KICKS TO KEEP ‘KID’ APPLETON AT BAY IN GEELONG

It was a day when the kid took it right up to the king but at the end of an enthralling Australian Long Distance Championship in and around picturesque Geelong yesterday it was the king who prevailed – albeit only just.

“The king” widely acclaimed as arguably Australia’s greatest triathlete, Craig Alexander, at 41 had to pull out all stops to finally drop “the kid” Sam Appleton, at 24, before keeping his Australian record in tact – winning his fourth National crown.

The race attracted an all-star cast of male and female professionals and over 1400 age groupers, including Victoria’s multiple world champion, 70-year-old Ken Murley who along with all of his younger rivals began the 70.3 distance with the 1.9km swim in Corio Bay followed by the two lap 90km bike course in Geelong’s picturesque waterfront and scenic countryside, before the 21.1km run which included Eastern Park along the bay trail. 

In the professional male race three-time Ironman World Champion, Alexander took the lead on to the 21.1km run, but the boy from the Blue Mountains, Appleton was quickly onto his shoulder, where he remained until the last few kilometres when Alexander finally broke his young challenger.

“It is nice to come back and win, I’ve got a great record here. Hats off to Sammy what he did today was world class, he pushed me all the way,” Alexander said.

“I put a lot of surges in today, on one of the downhills I was running sub 3 minute kilometres, and I still couldn’t drop Sam.

“I was disappointed after Kona last year and took some time off; I trained through Christmas and actually feel fitter than I did last year at the same time.”

Appleton opened up a 30 second lead on the chase pack early on the 90km bike as Bell suffered a mechanical fault that forced him out of the race.

Bowstead and Alexander pushed hard and by the end of the bike leg had closed the gap.

“I gave it all I could but the old guy (Alexander) got me in the end, “Appleton said.

“That was an incredible experience, (Craig) is someone I’ve looked up to my whole career, and to be racing him and making him work for the win feels really good.”

Meanwhile in the women’s race Liz Blatchford started her year in the prefect way, using a strong run to secure first place just 28 seconds ahead of fellow Aussie Rebekah Keat with Sarah Crowley in third.

Blatchford, Rebekah Keat and Gina Crawford lead out of the water and then spent the entire bike leg within close sight of each other.

Keat knew she needed to build a lead on the bike and took off like a scolded cat.

“I knew Liz and Gina were fit and I needed to go out hard and try and hold on,” she said.

Blatchford took the opposite approach and held a steady pace hoping Keat would hit a wall.

“I only had one pace today so I just had to run my own race. Bek took off out of transition quickly and she got a minute up the road. I held steady and she blew up and started to come back to me, so I dug deep and managed to get the win. It was fun out there today,” she said.

Crowley managed to overtake Crawford late in the run leg to claim third.

Among the age groupers it was Murley, who last year won world titles in the Sprint, Standard and 70.3 Championships who clocked a time of 5hrs 39mins 59secs to take the 70-74 years age group – a time which would also have won him the 65-69 years as well.

At the youngest end of the scale it was 20-year-olds, Newcastle’s Shane Ilgen and the Gold Coast’s former Port Macquarie champion, Madi Roberts who sealed respective victories in the 18-24 years age groups.

Here is a full list of the results: CLICK HERE

 

Issued on behalf of Triathlon Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia
Media Manager, 2014 Australian Commonwealth Games Team
Deputy Media Manager 2016 Australian Olympic Team
Media Manager 2014 Pan Pacs

 

 

Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia Managing Director

 

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