Australia’s Jack Woodberry and Addison Houslip have notched the biggest wins of their young careers, securing gold at the Europe Triathlon Junior Cup in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary.
Back-to-back racing across the weekend made for a tough challenge, with the pair needing to qualify through Saturday’s semis to reach Sunday’s final – a 500m swim, 12.5km bike and 3.6km run.
Woodberry’s weekend was far from smooth, but the Tasmanian recovered from a semi-final bike crash to power through a dramatic sprint finish in the final, taking gold in style.
“I can’t even believe what just happened,” the 17-year-old said.
“I came into the home straight going back-and-forth with the guy in second (Zalan Trungel-Nagy) and hit another gear with about 100m to go and went for it.
“I had a really hard weekend; I went down yesterday on the bike and to come back today and win means a lot.
“It was honestly a real mental challenge. I crashed coming out of transition and got straight back on and road my way back to the front to finish third and qualify for the final. Last night was really tough imagining how today would go but I’m stoked, really happy.”
Houslip fought just as hard to claim her win, powering ahead on the run leg to build a strong lead. With fatigue setting in on the final of three laps, the Queenslander dug deep to produce a final burst of speed, fending off a late charge from Hungary’s Laura Szóbácsi.
“I knew if I wanted to keep the win today I’d have to dig really deep,” Houslip said.
“I’ll be honest is was so brutal but I’m glad I did it and feel really proud to have won today as one of the youngest athletes on the start line.”
The result caps off an impressive five-week stint in Europe for the 15-year-old, who also claimed silver at the Europe Triathlon Junior Cup in Holten and victory at the Div 2 French Grand Prix in Albi .
“This five weeks has been one of the most memorable of my entire life,” Houslip said.
“I’ve come over here, I’ve learned lots, I’ve adapted, I’ve met international competitors – coming from Australia, we’re a little far away. This trip has been everything I wanted it to be, it’s been absolutely incredible.
“Coming over to Europe in the first place was to get a taste and feel for the different race dynamics. Taking the win today really gave me confidence but it more so gave me so knowledge of what international competition looks like.”
To view full results from the Europe Triathlon Junior Cup, click here.
