Australia’s elite triathletes will be featured LIVE on FOX SPORTS this weekend as the best of the bestconverge on Chicago for the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Finals.
Australia will be represented by Olympians Emma Moffatt, Erin Densham, Emma Jackson, Courtney Atkinson and thefirst 2016 Rio nomination Aaron Royle.
Add in stars of the 2015 World Triathlon Series circuit Ryan Bailie and female find, Gillian Backhouse with youngsters Ashleigh Gentle, Ryan Fisher and Charlotte McShane who will all rubshoulders with unbeaten US supers star GwenJorgensen in the Elite women’s race on Saturday and Spain’s four-time ITUWorld Champion Javier Gomez in theelite men’s race on Sunday.
Here are the FOX SPORTS TV times and YOUR GUIDE to all the Australian athletes in the Elite, Under 23sand Junior divisions.
ITU World Triathlon Series GRANDFINAL LIVE From Chicago, USA
ELITE WOMEN: Saturday 19th SEPT -8:00am-10:30am (AEST)
WATCH LIVE TV - FOX SPORTS 1 (Ch501)
Or LIVE STREAM – https://triathlonlive.tv/live/
ELITE MEN: Sunday 20th SEPT -8:00am-10:30am (AEST)
WATCH LIVE TV - FOX SPORTS 4 (Ch505)
AUSTRALIANTEAM FOR THE 2015 ITU WORLD TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS, CHICAGO
ELITES
Aaron Royle (NSW)
Ryan Bailie (WA)
Ryan Fisher (VIC)
Courtney Atkinson (QLD)
Emma Moffatt (QLD)
Emma Jackson (QLD)
Gillian Backhouse (QLD)
Ashleigh Gentle (QLD)
Erin Densham (NSW)
Charlotte McShane (NSW)
UNDER 23S
Jake Birtwhistle (TAS)
Declan Wilson (ACT)
Matt Baker (NSW)
Natalie Van Coervorden (NSW)
JUNIORS
Matthew Hauser (QLD)
Luke Willian(QLD)
Christian Wilson (QLD)
TEAM STAFF AND COACHES
National Performance Director: Bernard Savage
National Manager,High Performance Pathway: Craig Redman
High Performance Operations Manager: Emma Whitelaw
National TeamDoctor: Dr Mark Young
Team Physician-Junior/Para: Dr Stacey Compton
Physiotherapy/SoftTissue: Dean Sullivan
Team Coaches: Dan Atkins,Stephen Moss, Danielle Stefano
AIS SportsDietitian & SSSM Coordinator: Greg Cox
Physiologist: Annette Eastwood
Bike Mechanic: Cameron Wright
Media Director: Ian Hanson
Profiles
Courtney Atkinson
DOB: August 15, 1976
AGE: 36
BORN: Gold Coast
LIVES: Gold Coast
TRAINS: Gold Coast
COACH: Self
Profile: A two-time Olympian from Beijing and London who announced his comeback to the ITU circuit in January to challenge for a third Olympic team in Rio. Has certainly made agood fist of his bid to become the first Australian to make three Olympicteams, finishing 10th in the WTS Gold Coast after his encouraging 14thin the Mooloolaba World Cup. He recently won the XTERRA Japan Championship inHokkaido in the lead up to the Chicago World Championships. An ITU World Junior Champion in 1999 who made his first Australian Elite team in 2000.
Ryan Bailie
DOB: July 15, 1990
AGE: 25
Born: Johannesbsurg,South Africa
LIVES: Wollongong, NSW
TRAINS: Wollongong, NSW;Vitoria- Gasteiz (Spain)
COACH: Jamie Turner
Profile: Having easily his best year on record as he climbs the ITU rankings ladder with some encouraging results – including four top ten finishes from seven WTS starts, his best being London where he finished fourth. The 2014 Commonwealth Games Teams Relay bronzemedallist has the Rio Olympics squarely on his mind after an unlucky Rio TestEvent when he came off his bike, in a spectacular fall that could well havecost him an automatic place on the team. He recovered to finish 14thand came back better than ever to fifth 5th in his last outing, asprint distance WTS round in Stockholm. You get the feeling a podium finish isjust around the corner.
Ryan Fisher
DOB: April 5, 1991
AGE: 24
BORN: Brisbane (QLD)
LIVES: Melbourne (VIC)
TRAINS: Melbourne (VIC)/Girona
COACH: Danielle Steffano,VIS
Profile: Certainly makinga good fist of his first serious year on the WTS circuit, which included abreakthrough win in the Chengdu ITU World Cup in May. Has given a good sight inhis four WTS outings, finishing in the top 30 on each occasion with Hamburg hisbest with a 23rd. But results don’t always tell the story of theraces with Fisher generally well placed out of the swim and always willing toshow his wares on the bike, especially on the tough courses. Thoroughlydeserves his place on his first Elite World Championship team, which has becomevery competitive, with the return of Courtney Atkinson and the form displayedby Aaron Royle and Ryan Bailie. Fisher will be one to watch over the nextcouple of years in the run towards 2018 and 2020.
Aaron Royle
DOB: January 26, 1990
AGE: 25
BORN: Newcastle (NSW)
LIVES: Wollongong (NSW)
TRAINS: Wollongong (NSW),Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)
COACH: Jamie Turner
Profile: After somewhat ofa disruptive start to the year with illness and injury, Royle showed his true class when he surged into the top 10 at the Rio Test Event in August to claim Australia’s first automatic Olympic team nomination for the 2016 Rio Games. He started the year in 18th place in the Abu Dhabi Sprint race; recorded a DNF in Auckland, was 26th in Yokohama and 23rd in London,before really hitting his straps to finish fifth in Hamburg, in the lead up toRio where he mixed it up with the big boys and recorded the run of his life tofulfill a childhood dream to make the Australian Olympic Team. Went on toStockholm to record his first WTS podium of the season before finishing fifthin Edmonton just last week. A year to remember for “Bugs” and it’s not overyet.
Gillian Backhouse
DOB: June 20, 1991
AGE: 24
BORN: Penrith (NSW)
LIVES: Brisbane (QLD)
TRAINS: Brisbane (QLD)
COACH: Stephen Moss, QAS
Profile: What a year forthe girl who was born in Penrith and grew up in Armidale in western NSW but who has blossomed in Brisbane under QAS coach Stephen Moss to throw a rather large spanner in the Olympic selection works for Rio. Last year’s under 23 ITU WorldChampionship silver medallist and ITU World Duathlon gold medallist has gone from strength to strengthafter recovering from injury. It had forced the TriathlonAustralia 2014 ChrisHewitt Emerging Athlete Award winner to sit out the later part of theAustralian domestic season and the early races in the WTS. After a DNF in her return race in Yokohama and 47th in London, all of her hard training, the belief of her coach and her own self belief started to pay off with an encouraging 12th placing in Hamburg in the lead-up to her 13thplace – the best of the Australian girls – in the Rio Test Event, when she ranherself to collapse in an extraordinary show of grit determination. She returned to the WTS to finish 14th in Stockholm before another major break through and her first WTS podium, a rewarding third in Edmonton. She arrives into Chicago to continue chasing her dreams and showing that the world is her oyster.
Erin Densham
DOB: May 3, 1985
AGE: 30
BORN: Camden, (NSW)
LIVES: Victoria, Canada
TRAINS: Victoria, Canada
COACH: Jonno Hall
Profile: Erin Densham’s return to the WTS circuit has been a long, slow process and one that she has managed to keep in perspective since her 18th place finish on the Gold Coast in April and the ups and downs that have followed. The ups haveincluded a 21st place finish in Cape Town; 12th in London and a recentsixth in Stockholm where she admitted she finally started to find her runninglegs, giving her hope that all was not lost as she too mounted her bid to makea third Olympic team for Rio after making her debut in 2008 and her brilliantbronze from London.
Ashleigh Gentle
DOB: February 25, 1991
AGE: 24
BORN: Gold Coast (QLD)
LIVES: Gold Coast (QLD)
TRAINS: Gold Coast (QLD)
COACH: Cliff English
Profile: A confidence boosting silver medal in Yokohama has been a major highlight of a breakthrough season on the WTS for former ITU World Junior Champion Ashleigh Gentle. Theperformance has put the 24-year-old Gold Coaster very much in the mix in whatis becoming a very competitive women’s field led by a trio of US women. Gentlestarted her season with a hard fought third place in the Mooloolaba World Cupfollowed by a 22nd in Auckland and 15th in her home raceon the Gold Coast before she shared the Yokohama podium with fellow Aussie andtwo-time world champion Emma Moffatt who was third. A 14th inHamburg followed before her 19th (second Australian) in the Rio TestEvent and her eighth in her last start in Edmonton as she put the finishingtouches to her Chicago preparations. Will be looking to be in striking distance to unleash her dynamic 10km run.
Emma Jackson
DOB: August 20, 1991
AGE: 24
LIVES: Brisbane (QLD)
BORN: Brisbane (QLD)
TRAINS: Brisbane(QLD)/Aix Les Bains (France)
COACH: Stephen Moss, QAS
Profile: Will be looking to finish her WTS season on a high after a disappointing year with a disrupted start to her season after recovering from injury which had curtailed her preparations. Didn’t really start to show the kind of form that has made herone of Australia’s major contenders until after the Rio Test Event where he was35th. A top 10 finish in Stockholm where she was ninth was followedby an 11th place finish in Edmonton and if she brings her A game toChicago there is no reason why she can’t challenge for another top 10 finish.It would certainly be encouraging as she tries to keep her hands up forselection on her second Olympic team.
Charlotte McShane
DOB: August 14, 1990
AGE: 25
BORN: Wick, Scotland,UK
LIVES: Wollongong, NSW
TRAINS: Wollongong, NSW/Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)
COACH: Jamie Turner
Profile: The 2013 Under 23ITU world champion has enjoyed a consistent season on the WTS stage after an encouraging start to the year with her seventh placed finish in Abu Dhabi before embarking on Auckland (13th), Gold Coast (31st),Yokohama (24th), London (16th) and Hamburg (18th) with a 36th place in the Rio Test Event. Charlotte has cemented her placein Australia’s top six elite women’steam that have certainly had a mixed year. But she certainly has happy memories of Chicago last year when she finished 10th in a race won by Gwen Jorgensen and that saw fellow Australian Emma Moffatt seventh. A repeat performance is not beyond her.
Emma Moffatt
DOB: September 7, 1984
AGE: 31
BORN: Moree, NSW
LIVES: Gold Coast, QLD
TRAINS: Gold Coast, QLD
COACH:
Profile: The two-time ITU world champion, dual Olympian and 2008 Olympic bronze medallist is Australia’s highest ranked female on the WTS rankings. Moffatt sits in eight place anddespite a DNF at the Rio Test Event and a hiccup in the first race of theseason in Abu Dhabi, Moffatt has finished sixth over the tough Auckland course,12th on the Gold Coast, before her one and only podium of the year,third in the Yokohama race before her seventh place finish in Edmonton. Moffatthas been in Colorado training and preparing for this week’s worldchampionships. Her goal of course is next year’s Rio Olympics and if she canmake it, she will be the first Australian triathlete to make it to threeOlympics – a feat also achievable by Courtney Atkinson and Erin Densham.
U23 Team:
Matthew Baker
DOB: July 29, 1994
AGE: 21
BORN: Gosford, NSW
LIVES: Melbourne, VIC
TRAINS: Melbourne, VIC/Girona,Spain
COACH: Danielle Stefano,VIS
Profile: A member of Australia’s silver medal winning U23 Teams Relay from last year’s World Championships who has moved from the Central Coast of NSW to the Danielle Stefano VIS program in Melbourne, where he trains with Declan Wilson and Ryan Fisher. Matt has had a successful year on the circuit, finishing second to MattHauser in a Fiji Oceania Cup race, dominated by Australians. He also finished second and third in two ETU events and on his day will certainly be capable in this field.
Jacob Birtwhistle
DOB: January 4, 1985
AGE: 20
BORN: Launceston, TAS
LIVES: Wollongong, NSW
TRAINS: Wollongong, NSW/Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)
COACH: Jamie Turner
Profile: In 2014 Jake struck gold in the ITU World Junior Duathlon and represented Australia at the 2014 ITU World Junior Triathlon Championships where he won individual and teams silver. Jake has justcompleted his first year on the elite ITU World Triathlon Series circuit and isalready ranked in the top 25 in the world. He produced his first top 10 finishwith a 9th in the WTS round in Yokohama. Jake started his ITU seasonwith a second in the ITU World Cup race in Mooloolaba before making his WTSdebut in Auckland, where he was 38th. He was quick to re-group under coach Jamie Turner and bounced back to finish 9th in Yokohama and 11th in London. Illness and injury have plagued the backend of his season butrealised a major step to be selected to contest the Rio Test Event, experiencehe will value as he builds his confidence for this week’s Under 23 WorldChampionship.
Declan Wilson
DOB: February 23, 1993
AGE: 22
BORN: Canberra, ACT
LIVES: Melbourne, VIC
TRAINS: Melbourne, VIC/Girona,Spain
COACH: Danielle Stefano,VIS
Profile: The 2013 Under 23World Championship bronze medallist has had a mixed year with the highlight being his win over team mate Matt Baker in the ETU Sprint Triathlon European Cup in Tartu, Estonia. An in form, Wilson can certainly trouble this under 23field.
Natalie Van Coevorden
DOB:
AGE: 22
BORN: Glen Alpine, NSW
LIVES: Wollongong, NSW
TRAINS: Wollongong, NSW/Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)
COACH: Jamie Turner
Junior Team: Natalie Van Coevorden could emerge as the surprise packet of a race with a sole Australian competitor after an in-different year that saw her in hospital recently with a minor health scare but now back to 100 percent fitness for her assault on the under 23 World Championship. Has recorded a 25th in Auckland, 26thin London and 22nd in Stockholmbut placings that don’t full tell the story of her races. She has put togethersome outstanding parts and with a little luck on her side could well give thisfield a scare.
Matthew Hauser
DOB: March 4, 1998
AGE: 17
BORN/LIVES: Hervey Bay, QLD
TRAINS: Hervey Bay, QLD
COACH: Brian Harrington
Results: Won the 2014 & 2015 OTU Oceania JuniorTriathlon Championship and the OTUFiji Oceania Cup Triathlon ahead of more fancied U23 athletes. Willbe excited to take his place in this field after a broken collarbone from afall off his bike robbed him of a place on last year’s Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Team.
Christian Wilson
DOB: April 2ND,1996
AGE: 19
BORN: Maryborough, QLD
LIVES: Brisbane, QLD
TRAINS: Sheldon College,QLD
COACH: Chris Lang
Profile: Great to see Christian back to 100 percent after doctors diagnosed him with Crohn’s Disease.The former Hervey Bay boy and another of Brian Harrington’s students, with MattHauser, won a scholarship to Sheldon College under the expertise of coach ChrisLang and he has settled back into a routine which could well see him deliversome solid results.
Luke Willian
DOB:October 11, 1996
AGE: 19
LIVES:Brisbane (QLD)
COACH: Warwick Dalziel (SPC Brisbane)
PROFILE: Featured in a dramatic dead-heat with Matt Roberts at this year’s Australian Junior Championships in Devonport and also finished second in the 2015 OTU Kinloch Oceania Cup and 2015 OTU Takapuna Oceania Cup. Luke previously represented Australian in the Junior team at the 2013 London World Championships.
ITU World Triathlon Series GRANDFINAL LIVE From Chicago, USA
ELITE WOMEN: Saturday 19th SEPT -8:00am-10:30am (AEST)
WATCH LIVE TV - FOX SPORTS 1 (Ch501)
Or LIVE STREAM – https://triathlonlive.tv/live/
ELITE MEN: Sunday 20th SEPT -8:00am-10:30am (AEST)
WATCH LIVE TV - FOX SPORTS 4 (Ch505)
Or LIVE STREAM – https://triathlonlive.tv/live/
FOR ALL OTHER RACES (Paratriathlon, U23,Junior, Age Group will be LIVE streamed)
LIVE STREAM - http://www.triathlon.org/live
U23 MEN: Thursday 17th SEPT - 10pm(AEST)
Age Group Sprint Distance: Friday 18th SEPT- From 1am (AEST)
JUNIOR MEN: Friday 18th SEPT – 7:30am(AEST)
ELITE PARATRIATHLON: Friday 18th SEPT –10pm (AEST)
U23 WOMEN: Saturday 19th SEPT – 2:30am(AEST)
JUNIOR WOMEN: Saturday 19th SEPT – 5:30am(AEST)
Age Group Standard Distance: Sunday 20thSEPT – From 1am (AEST)
DAY BY DAY TIME TABLE
|
Sept 16 – Wednesday |
||||||
|
Aquathlon World Championships (1am AEST) |
||||||
|
Opening Ceremony (9am AEST) |
||||||
|
Sept 17 – Thursday |
||||||
|
U23 Men World Championship (10pm AEST) |
||||||
|
Age Group Sprint World Championship (1am AEST) |
||||||
|
Junior Men World Championship (7:30am AEST) |
||||||
|
Sept 18 – Friday |
||||||
|
Elite Paratriathlon World Championship (10pm AEST) |
||||||
|
U23 Women World Championship (2:30am AEST) |
||||||
|
Junior Women World Championship (5:30am AEST) |
||||||
|
Elite Women World Championship (8am AEST) |
||||||
|
Sept 19 – Saturday |
||||||
|
Age Group Standard World Championship (1:10am AEST) |
||||||
|
Elite Men World Championship (8am AEST) |
||||||
|
Closing Ceremonies (10am AEST) |
||||||
Follow us on:
