Orange Cycle and Triathlon Club president Michael Lockyer labelled teenage wunderkind Lauren Kerwick the undeniable “stand-out” Piranha at last weekend’s Junior Triathlon Festival, which doubled as the Triathlon NSW Youth/Junior/Under-23 Super Sprint Championships.
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Kerwick blitzed the brand new Gosling Creek track – which Lockyer confirmed OCTC is planning to use as a permanent base in the near future – to secure wins in her female junior division in the ITU Aquathlon and Ultra Sprints on Saturday and claim second spot in the ITU Draft Legal Super Sprint on Sunday.
Those results gave her the overall victory among all the female draft legal competitors.
“Lauren was a real stand-out, she really dominated … she was probably the stand-out of all the females actually,” Lockyer said of Kerwick, a member of both the NSW emerging talent and HyPER squads.
Kerwick was one of several Piranhas and HyPER – coached by Mel Ashton-Garard – athletes in action over the weekend, and Lockyer reserved special praise for one other in particular.
“Young Tommy Tudor produced a really, really strong race in the (Draft Legal Super Sprint male) B final against some much older opponents,” Lockyer said.
“It was a real coming of age type of race for him. He had a really strong swim and a good bike leg, then just kept ticking them off in the run to win the B final. He clocked a time better than some of the guys in the A final too.”
Tudor clocked 28.15 to win the B final, splitting 5.11, 14.36 and 7.35 in the 300m swim, 8km cycle and 2km run legs, respectively.
“He did a really, really good job,” Lockyer said.
“Other than those two all of the Orange athletes did very well. Connor (Whiteley) was good as always to finish high up and we had a lot of others earn really good results.
“It was just a really great weekend and having spoken to a lot of the coaches it looks like we’ll try to make it an annual event now too.
“The Saturday was focused on the development side of things with skills for the juniors – which is all the way up to under 23s – and a couple of races, then the Sunday had the main event and a few of our normal club races.
“We had an incredible turn-out of juniors from all over the state and some of the best athletes in the state came along.
“The new course received nothing but compliments and positive feedback, which is another great aspect.”
Full results from the event can be found at http://www.racetecresults.com/Results.aspx?CId=16253&RId=325.