Atkinson, Luxford storm Australian Nationals
2008 Olympian Courtney Atkinson took a 59-second margin of victory over runner-up Gareth Halverson and Annabel Luxford cruised to a 1 minute 22-second win over runner-up Sakimot Tomoto to wrap up decisive victories at the 2009 Australian Olympic Distance Triathlon titles in Perth Sunday.
The men
Atkinson emerged from the swim 5th (17:10), behind Halverson and Ben Allen (17:05) Jamie Rhodes (17:06) and David Hauss (17:08). On the bike, Atkinson joined with Halverson, Allen and Rhodes for a breakaway. Then the 29-year-old Olympian put the hammer down with a race-best 31:15 run that put a minute on Halverson.
The women
Luxford emerged from the swim in 18:27, two seconds ahead of Melissa Trims and five seconds ahead of Sakimot Tomoko. The three broke away, with Tomoko leading the trio into T2. On the run, Luxford’s race-best 37:16 left runner-up Tomoko (38:43) in her dust, with Felicity Sheedy-Ryan’s 37:33 pulling her into third ahead of Trims (42:03) for third overall.
2009 Australian National Olympic Distance Championship
ITU Oceania Cup – City of Perth Triathlon
Perth, Australia
March 15, 2009
S 1.5k/ B 40k/ R 10k
Results
Elite men
1. Courtney Atkinson AUS 1:46:17
2. Gareth Halverson AUS 1:47:16
3. David Hauss AUS 1:50:54
4. Ben Allen AUS 1:52:03
5. Peter Schokman AUS 1:52:09
6. Jeremy Drake AUS 1:54:47
7. Jamie Rhodes AUS 1:57:00
8. Aaron Terechovs AUS 1:58:47
Elite women
1. Annabel Luxford AUS 1:59:38
2. Sakimot Tomoto JPN 2:01:00
3. Felicity Sheedy-Ryan AUS 2:03:38
4. Melissa Trims AUS 2:04:25
5. Sarah Crowley AUS 2:04:36
6. Sophia Amor-Smith AUS 2:10:21
7. Michelle Wu 2:11:17
