Rei Colucci on route to the Bronze medal - World Long Distance Championship Photo: ITU media
This weekend saw some fantastic results for Sutto squad athletes.
Reinaldo Colucci from Brazil ended his European training camp with a brilliant performance in the ITU World Long Distance Championships held in Almere. Reinaldo has been in St Moritz camp to transition from Olympic distance racing to long course and it was a nice surprise for coach to see the Lion hit the podium with such a courageous effort. He may indeed have surprised himself off a very limited training base, however Rei proved to us that he is far away from retiring with this fantastic performance. Well done Rei we are very proud!
Next we must hail the mental fortitude that our little pistol showed, rewarded with a super win at the ITU World Cup in Karlovy Vary. This is one of the hardest, if not the hardest course on the ITU circuit. So we packed Julie Derron off to do it, backing up after a great half ironman win in Gerardmer in France last week. As expected, little pistol went to work on the challenging bike course, splitting the typical large ITU packs that form on the round-the-witches-hat circuits. Julie made the bike for all a suffer fest, then jumped off and applied the same pressure during the run.
Julie on top at Karlovy Vary. Photos: ITU media
Non-selection for the Olympics may have crushed a lesser person, however Julie has turned it into a show of form that is massive. Winning this World Cup makes it 3 wins as well as a great second to Daniela Ryf in WTC 70.3 Rapperswil.
The commentators calling Julie the new 'Swiss bike train' and a mini Nicola Spirig in the making, is high praise for our little pistol. Speaking of the great one, Nicola showed that her 5th Olympics was not the end of the road just yet with an emphatic win at 70.3 Nice.
It's a race that the champ has always wanted to do, so at the completion of her Olympic campaign, while still on a mini break, she went to the famous Côte d’Azur, with no expectations while wanting to tick a box in triathlon. As soon as the first mountain pass was on her, the love of the mountains saw her competitive nature unleash a fantastic bike split to put the race beyond reach of her competitors by the start of the run. A very strong performance in anyones language.
Consecutive wins for Joel over the half iron distance - in Locarno and Megozzo.
We also want to congratulate our newest member of the team 20 year old Aussie battler Joel Wooldridge. 'Billy' racked up his second half distance race win since arriving in Europe just 3 weeks ago. Joel is living his dream of racing pro, and while the races are not the biggest in Europe, it's a start for Billy on his long journey to becoming a top pro over the next few years. Both his performances were a pointer that he is not wasting his time in pursuing a career in triathlon.
It was very pleasing to see Sarah Thomas rise above her own expectations, finishing with the chocolate medal at 70.3 Sunshine Coast. Nina Derron continues her build back with another win on the local Swiss circuit whilst Max Studer took on the second round of the Superleague circuit gaining experience and learning the lessons. Coach Mel avoided disaster with a bike mechanical in Denmark but with the chance to make amends this next weekend.
Sarah, Nina, Max rounding out an action packed weekend of racing.
As we said, a big weekend congratulations to all.
Well done indeed.