Tracey Steens finishes 6th AG 20-24

2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship

3049 athletes from across the world descended on Australia’s Gold Coast for the 2009 ITU Triathlon World Championships as the top age group competitors went head to head over both the sprint and standard distances alongside their paratriathlon counterparts.

The host nation submitted the largest team with 989 triathletes taking to the course, with Great Britain in second, fielding a massive squad of 408 who made the journey to the other side of the world. The USA took the bronze medal in the participant number, just 16 athletes less than Great Britain with 392. 378 triathletes from neighbouring New Zealand also made the trip.

2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Grand Final Gold Coast : 20-24 Female AG : Results

Tracey Steens outstanding work and training ethic and demanding schedule fueled her to 6th place in a field of 69 at the Age World Championships, Gold Coast. Tracey was just 7 mins off the winner Gilfillan AUS. Steens who had a very competitive swim just 33 /100th s off the winner's time also finished well up in the bike times but found the run with the heat more taxing than expected and lost some time in this section. An excellent effort. Well done Tracey

1 Courtney Gilfillan AUS 02:09:13
2 Sarah Bryant NZL 02:13:29
3 MadeleineOldfield AUS 02:13:41
4 MirandaTomeson CAN 02:15:28
5 Krista Meares AUS 02:16:02
6 Tracey Steens NZL 02:16:17

Full official results

Some athletes made their way from as far afield as Venezuela, Oman, Norway, Morocco, Liechtenstein, Guatemala, Mauritius and Kazakhstan, ensuring that the strong turnouts from the larger countries were matched with passion and enthusiasm from the smaller triathlon nations.

Australia were the big winners in the standard distance competition taking ten gold medals, ahead of the USA on eight. There were also gold medals heading back to Great Britain, Canada, France and Spain.

Day Three Canoe Slalom World Champs Spain

Photograph:Balint Vekassy

La Seu D’Urgell, Spain – While Slovakia won two of the four team events at today’s International Canoe Federation Canoe Slalom World Championships, perhaps the happier news here today was Spain winning its first-ever medals in a World Championship.

Gold medalists in today’s team competitions were Slovakia in C2 and C1 men, Great Britain in K1 Women and Czech Republic in K1 men.

Spanish fans erupted in cheers, applause and even tears as Team Spain’s first bronze medalists realized they had earned Spain’s first-ever medal in a World Championship. The C1 team, comprised of Jordi Domenjo, Jon Erguin and Ander Elosegi was mobbed by fans as they took their boats out at the finish line. A similar scene erupted when in K1 team action, top-seeded France incurred a 50 point penalty moving that country into ninth place and Spain up to third. The K1 team was comprised of Joan Crespo, Guillermo Diez Canedo and Carles Juanmarti.

Finals are slated to start at Noon. For up-to-the-minute schedules and results visit http://www.worldseu09.parcolimpic.com/

Day Two Canoe Slalom World Championships

The kiwi team were all on the course racing, on day two of the World Champs in Seu, with only the C1 women advancing to the semis in their demonstration event. In the 98 strong K1 men's field, Peter Kauser 84.74s SLO, continued his outstanding form and took top honours by 1.99 seconds, showing his consistent form this year.

Top performing New Zealander Mike Dawson, who had spent the week off the water due to a mystery illness needed to be helped from his boat after second runs, finished a disappointing 54th, after a touch on the last gate. The fastest Kiwi with a raw run of 91.51s, the touch blew his semi hopes, while Aaron Osborne's 92.16s clean second run left him in 45th. Team mate Johann Roozenburg 102.58s was 69th. Alex Grimm Olympic Champion Beijing failed to make the semis on this course, which tested the athletes.

Youngster Brent Bastin 112.40s in his first world champs experience finished 52nd in the C1 event, fielding 67 paddlers. Jon Eurguin ESP to the home crowd's delight, took out the heats in 91.74s.

At the top of the table in the women's C1 demonstration event was 16 year old Chinese athlete Qianqian Teng, 120.84 s with NZL'ers Louise Jull 149.26s in 8th, and Luuka Jones 190.99s in 16th, both advancing to semis on Sunday.

The ICF is working towards having C1W in the 2016 Olympics and while the fields are currently small a number of nations are actively preparing their athletes for the 2016 Olympics.
Day three is teams events, with the only NZ team being in K1 mens.

Canoe Slalom World Championships 9-13th September

Mike Dawson after months of training unfortunately contracted swine flu a week out from the World Championships. A decision will be made as to his fitness to compete after his illness. He is slowly recovering but far from the peak of his goal to make top 10. We wish Mike a speedy recovery and all the best if he is capable of racing.

For full event information Click here

Tri Worlds Australia

Competing Age World Standard Distance Triathlon Championships, September 2009 Australia

Tracey Steens begins an intense week as the Tri Worlds start Tuesday 8th. All the best to Tracey for her competition.

Follow her competition Event Schedule