AusLeisure

The Gold Coast will stage the final 'automatic' Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games qualifying race for Australia’s elite triathletes.

Triathlon Australia has scheduled the second round of the ITU World Triathlon Series on 9th April 2016 at Southport as the final chance for triathletes to book an automatic nomination for the Games.

The Gold Coast race will be the second round of the 2016 World Triathlon Series calendar which kicks off in Abu Dhabi on 4th and 5th March next year.

Triathlon Australia’s 2016 Australian Olympic Team Nomination Criteria will now see the first Australian athlete who finishes in the top 10 in either of the male or female races nominated by Triathlon Australia to the Australian Olympic Committee.

Nomination will be subject to the athlete satisfying and continuing to satisfy the requirements set out in the 2016 Australian Olympic Team Triathlon Australia Nomination Criteria.

The Gold Coast race will see the cream of Australia’s triathletes on the starting line, including the inform Commonwealth Games representative Ryan Bailie in the men’s and two-time Olympic and bronze medallist Emma Moffatt and her fellow Gold Coaster and Commonwealth Games representative Ashleigh Gentle.

They will be joined in the girls by rising stars Backhouse and Charlotte McShane, London Olympic bronze medallist Erin Densham and her London team mate Emma Jackson in the women’s race and two-time Olympian Courtney Atkinson and emerging star, ITU under 23 world champion Jake Birtwhistle, with Ryan Fisher also in the mix.

At the conclusion of the 2015 WTS season in Chicago last month, Moffatt finished 10th overall; Gentle 12th; McShane 15th, Backhouse 25th, Densham 31st and Jackson 32nd.

Selection for Moffatt, Densham and Atkinson will see them become triathlon’s first triple Olympians – with all three members of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic teams.

If there is another automatic selection in the men’s race at the Gold Coast it will leave one position open for a discretionary selection providing Australia gains three quota places at the end of the Olympic Qualification period next May.

If there is an automatic qualifier in the women race then it means there will be a maximum two places open for discretion providing Australia gains its three quota places.

The Oceania Championships in Gisborne on 19th March will be a key, with the winners of both the men’s and women’s race securing a quota place for their Federation.

Australia has an impressive Olympic medal tally winning one gold, two silver and two bronze medals from four Olympic campaigns; with Michellie Jones winning silver in 2000; Loretta Harrop winning silver in 2004; Emma Snowsill gold and Moffatt bronze in 2008 and Densham bronze in 2012.

Australia’s second highest placed male in an Olympic triathlon, Miles Stewart, who was sixth in Sydney in 2000, has just been appointed as Triathlon Australia’s new CEO.

Greg Bennett has the highest placing of any Australian male, finishing fourth in Athens in 2004, while Courtney Atkinson was 11th in 2008 and 18th in 2012.

25th May 2015 - GOLD COAST TO HOST 2018 WORLD TRIATHLON GRAND FINAL

13th September 2014 - MORE PEOPLE JOINING TRIATHALON GROUPS IN AUSTRALIA

8th September 2014 - ITU WORLD TRIATHLON SERIES TO RETURN TO AUSTRALIA WITH GOLD COAST EVENT

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