Devonport Oceania Sprint Championships Race Report

My third weekend of February saw me heading very far south to our island friend of Tasmania to contest and hopefully back up my win last year for the Oceania Elite Sprint Championship title! This was my fifth trip down to Devonport, one of my calendar favourites!! Devonport has always been kind to me, it's familiar & I love the town hot spots, the tough course & race it proves each year!

Devonport didn’t disappoint this year either, with a stronger field than has previously heading south it was great to have some quality racing over the 750m chilly Tasman Sea ocean swim, a tough 20km ride with 4 laps up North street hill (some of you that have been reading my blog the last few years would remember this one from the 3 years previous, this year the race was a sprint -20km ride, not Olympic- 40km ride, so we only battled half the amount, it almost seemed easy haha) and onto the 5km flat & fast run along the ocean swept streets!

Team NSW & HPT have stayed the past 5 times at the same homely B&B – Dannebrog & it really makes a big difference returning to a place that’s familiar, you get to really know the town, where to swim, ride & run, where the best cafés are, where to book dinner & find coffee, along with getting to know all the local characters, it’s a part of the travel involved with racing that I love!!

Arriving mid afternoon on Thursday meant I had time to settle in pre-race, get my prep work done and relax, mum & I even snuck in for a movie afternoon off the feet! Racing early Saturday morning for a refreshing change, with us Elite women kicking it off at 7.30am sharp, with the sun barely peeking through, it was cold & chilly both in the water (17.5 degrees) and out! Lining up for another beach start, running into the water, unfortunately no surf making its way into Devonport Bluff (on the very odd chance) but still, I’ll happily take an ocean swim any day!

Making our way around the course, I could feel a tapping on the feet at about halfway & wasn’t surprised to see it was fellow NSW training & racing buddy Nat VC on my feet as we exited the water with a small gap on the chasing field behind! We got straight onto the bike, hustling to make work of this small lead we had, both of us on the same page which was great! It was heads down bums up for the first 5km to hammer it and extend the lead out to around 35 seconds, being a course that doubles back on itself we could see our lead extending, reward for our effort and efficient pulling of turns together, by 10km we had about 50 seconds and the lead extended out to 1:20 by the end of the 20km ride! Although a tough course with the hill & strong winds regardless it was great to have Nat their to share the work, after riding the 40km cycle leg solo the previous 2 years in a breakaway off the front.

Running into transition with the support on course & cheers form my number 1 supporter Supa Jeffcoat who had been cheering absolutely everyone on from the start, as she ALWAYS says to me before I race whatever the event- “have fun & race safe” - that’s all she’s after!

Heading out onto the run leg with a solid gap over the field it was looking to be down to a footrace between us 2 having taken the race away from the other strong & quick ladies in the field! I was really pleased with how my legs felt heading out and was comfortable to settle into a rhythm and just slightly get the edge over Nat in lap 1 but equally knowing Nat would be hot on my heels till the end so I had to push it all the way to the finish!! With a definite smile creeping onto my face with about 1km to go as I realised I was going to get to take the tape, earn myself a second Oceania Elite Championship Title & have the chance to celebrate the win with Mum & Mick my coach with them waiting across the finish line!

Certainly a pretty special moment for any athlete & one I loved being able to soak up and enjoy as I ran towards the finish with a few high fives and plenty of course cheers on route!

With Nat following closely behind and Charlotte McShane rounding out the podium it was one of those awesome days, smiling away on the podium & “cheers”-ing to the girls with a nice bottle of Tasmania’s Sparkling wine (which Mum helped me enjoy a glass of later) It was straight to athlete business as usual with press/ media work before anti-doping control testing, taken away into a downstairs locker room waiting to pass a sample, the real athlete life right there with the celebration party of 1 going off… not!!