Western Australia’s peak triathletes were in action last weekend at the ITU World Series event on the Gold Coast as Commonwealth Games spots were up for grabs.
Sally Pilbeam fetched the best individual result for WA, taking a race win in the PTS4 classification, crossing the line in 1hr18.58.
The dual Para-Triathlon World Champion, who this week celebrates her 39th birthday, finished ahead of compatriot Kerryn Harvey.
2016 Rio Paralympian Brant Garvey was also amongst the medals, collecting bronze in the men’s PT2 class.
Garvey was second out of the swim but lost ground over the bike and run legs, to eventually finish in third place with a time of 1hr13.14.
He was quickest of the Australian competitors, sharing the podium with race winner Stephane Bahier (FRA) and Mark Barr (USA).
Rio Olympian Ryan Bailie was in action in the men’s elite race, taking 16th place overall. Bailie was fourth of the competing Australians, with an overall time of 53.35mins.
In the women’s elite race, first year senior Jaz Hedgeland gave a good account of herself to register a 27th position finish.
Hedgeland crossed the finish line in 1hr0.10 in warm conditions raced over a 750m swim, 20km bike and five kilometre run.
With an automatic qualification spot up for grabs for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Ashleigh Gentle became the first officially nominated Australian athlete on the team, after she ran home second, behind race winner Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand.
Jacob Birtwhistle claimed the qualification spot in the men’s elite race for Australia, whilst Bill Chaffey and Emily Tapp earned the first available spots for Para-triathletes at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
