The final round of the Billigence Pathway Series for the 2023/24 took place in February 11th at Macquarie Fields, the home ground of the Macarthur Triathlon Club.
The concluding race presented a chance to accumulate more series points, with many of the final standings depending on this last round to determine the Category Champions and the Overall Series winners The event commenced with an Aquathlon, followed by a Le Mans Crit, and concluded with a Duathlon final that determined the placings.
The Billigence Series featured diverse racing formats, providing athletes with opportunities to showcase quick thinking, resilience, and excel in various race scenarios.
As the sun sets on the series for another successful year, it would be remiss of us not to extend our deepest and most sincere thanks to Jana and Michael Kapr from Billigence for their continuous support and passion of the Pathway Series. They continue to invest into the sport and it’s future stars, and our goal is to always repay this investment by delivering the best products, programs and events possible!
Maddie Platt was excited to make the A final in Round 5, the only female that was in the A final and a first time for Maddie. When asked what she thought, Maddie replied “ The first races today were really good, versing up with boys and girls and then I made it into the A final and that was all boys. That was a bit scary as I haven’t made an A final before”. When asked about the plans for the future Maddie replied “The plan for the next few years is to make the ETS Squad and race at some of the Oceania Races”
Series favourite Mitchell Blackbourn was well aware of the challengers that can come from the short, sharp, fast Billigence races, and here is what he had to say about the race today – “My race today went really well – there was a pretty good bike pack, it was going to be a pretty tough second run in the duathlon but I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to get out of T2 first. I am heading over to New Zealand to try and make the Junior World Team and then race in Holton in Germany. Last year I raced overseas and what I learnt was that I needed to be more aggressive on the bike”
After the Duathlon Final at Macarthur the overall series winners and Category Champions for the series were announced. Timing guru Andrew Tong had to crunch the numbers fast to reveal who was going home with the crown. Billigence kindly provided Overall Series Prize money and trophies for the categories.
Coach Education and Pathway Lead, Robyn Low- Hart said of the series, “we are so fortunate in NSW that we have the support of the clubs to host draft legal races for athletes in the development pathway. Without the clubs involvement in the series there would hardly be any draft legal racing in NSW. Athletes are able to develop their skills and racing craft over the series and the change from race 1 to race 5 is remarkable. Alongside of the clubs, we have the support from Billigence that allows these racing opportunities to be professional with live and accurate timing, technical officials and transition boxes so that athletes can experience International type racing locally”.
Plans are already underway for season 2024/25, to be bigger and better every year with new inclusions and formats. This season athletes were racing from the ACT and a squad from QLD Development Pathway flew in to race at the Penrith Sprint race in January. NSW Performance Centre athletes raced at a couple of the races – the series providing opportunities at many levels of the pathway.
Congratulations to Grace Kells and Mitchell Blackbourn – Overall Series winners for 2023/24.
Congratulations to all of the place getters, and importantly to everyone that reached their goals and progressed throughout the series. A huge shout out to all of the parents for all of the running around and expense that goes along with having an athlete. To the coaches, clearly you are doing a fantastic job developing athletes within your regions, utilizing your expertise to enhance the next generation of champions coming through.
BPS 2024 Overall Tally Final
Billigence Pathway Series Category Tally.
