Sissons and Corbidge headline NZ team to Oceania Tri Champs

Ryan Sissons and Sophie Corbidge headline the New Zealand team taking part in the Oceania Triathlon Championships (standard distance) in Devonport, Tasmania this weekend. Joining Sissons and Corbidge from the Tri NZ HP squads is Simone Ackermann, along with a host of other New Zealanders who have made their way across the Tasman to take on the Australians.

Tri NZ Coach Jon Brown describes the aims of the team in what is still very early in the season for them all.

“Basically the race is an opportunity for Ryan, Sophie and Simone to score much valuable Olympic and ITU qualification points in the first part of the Rio qualification period. All have been training very well focussing on general conditioning and building training volume rather than working on race intensity fitness. Devonport will be a good opportunity to see how the go over the full Olympic distance and also how they compete against good Australian competition; it’s still very early days in the season but for all 3 athletes it gives them opportunity to achieve podium finishes and bolster their confidence for the upcoming season.”

Sissons and Corbidge are both backing up from impressive performances at the latest round of the Sovereign Tri Series in Takapuna. Both were winners in the Oceania Continental Cup elite super sprint races, earning vital ITU ranking points in the process and in the case of Corbidge, backing up after her earlier win in the Oceania Sprint Champs at Sovereign Tri Kinloch.

The race is a special one for the hosts, celebrating 30 years of the Devonport event and the quality of the field is up to the occasion. The elite fields are small but high on quality, with Brendan Sexton, Peter Kerr and Courtney Atkinson leading the Aussie men, while Felicity Sheedy-Ryan and Sarah Lester are the lone Aussies in the elite women’s field that is dominated by New Zealanders.

All racing takes place on the Saturday, CLICK HERE for race schedule

For elite start lists, CLICK HERE