Australian duo Charlotte McShane and Jayden Schofield have won gold at the inaugural Oceania Triathlon Super Sprint Championships at the Gold Coast Performance Centre.
Navigating through a demanding event format featuring qualifiers, repechages, semi-finals, and finals, with some athletes finding themselves racing up-to four times in the day, the pair progressed through the competition structure to a triumphant finish at the final tape.
McShane took the title in a sprint finish ahead of Emma Jeffocat, with Sian Munks taking bronze and rounding out an all-Australian podium.
Remarkably, the win marks an inaugural Oceania Triathlon title for the 33-year-old.
“Win’s don’t come around that often, not anymore anyway,” McShane said.
“Anytime you have the chance to win a race it’s super nice. Being able to grab the tape and hold it up is special, so I definitely appreciate it a lot more than I might have done when I was a little bit younger – when things seemed to be a bit easier and smoother.”
With eyes on Paris and a maiden Olympic Games selection, McShane will race at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Yokohama next weekend where a top-eight finish would secure an automatic nomination to the Australian team.
She said today’s event was “really good, hard hit-out” ahead of next week’s race.
“It’s so good to be able to practice some of those technical skills, particularly things like transitions and some of those things I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to get better at,” she said.
“I think I nailed that today.”
Schofield took the win in a tight finish ahead of twin brother Luke Schofield, with Brayden Mercer taking bronze and also securing Australia a podium sweep in the men’s event.
For Schofield, the win also sees him take his first Oceania Triathlon title.
He said it was extra special to win at the Gold Coast Performance Centre in Runaway Bay.
“I’ve raced here for years as a junior and to come here and win is unbelievable,” Schofield said
“I absolutely love the super sprint format. It falls into what my strengths are and we just love the pain of fast running, fast riding and the transitions. That’s what makes the race really.”
He highlighted clinching top spots with his twin-brother added an extra layer of significance to the victory.
“We’ve had a fair few sprint finishes, he’s always a tough athlete to beat. Even though he is my brother, he’s a phenomenal athlete,” Schofield said.
“You can be fitter than him but trying to dig deeper than him is really the tough part.”
Oceania Triathlon Super Sprint Championships
Elite Women
1 Charlotte McShane (AUS)
2 Emma Jeffcoat (AUS)
3 Sian Munks (AUS)
Elite Men
1 Jayden Schofield (AUS)
2 Luke Schofield (AUS)
3 Brayden Mercer (AUS)
