Credit: Delly Carr/ITU
The Under-23 ITU World Champion was a steady improver on the ITU World Triathlon circuit in 2012. Aaron Royle’s win in Auckland brought some sunshine to an otherwise disappointing season for the Australian men’s triathlon team, and now has him firmly placed as a leading contender for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Since making his senior debut a couple seasons back, Royle has shown himself to be a gifted swim/biker. Recording the third-fastest run at the Under-23 World Championship in Auckland will also send a message to the doubters that he can’t hold it together over 10-kilometres on the run. We’d like to see Royle target the ITU World Sprint Championship in Hamburg this season, as his 11th placing in Stockholm last season shows he has the raw speed to competitive at this distance. Royle will lead a new wave of male Australian ITU athletes in 2013, and there’s no doubting he has the talent to make an impact against the best in the sport.
Tim Reed
A move to the Purple Patch stable under head coach Matt Dixon should see this gifted runner take his career to the next level. Reed shared some domestic success last season, with wins at the Falls Creek Triathlon, Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon and Ironman 70.3 Canberra. Add a couple of podium finishes at Ironman New Zealand* and Ironman 70.3 Mandurah–Australian Pro Championship, Reed showed he is more than capable of holding his own in the Asia-Pacific region. For Reed to really crack the big time, however, he needs to get it done against big international fields, and with the Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship in Auckland later this month, he’s got a great opportunity to show he can match with the big names of the sport. With a 1:11 run in him, Reed could become a superstar on the Ironman 70.3 circuit this season.
Credit: Delly Carr/ITU
Anne Haug may not be a household name in triathlon just yet, but after winning the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Auckland and finishing second in last year’s World Triathlon Series behind Sweden’s Lisa Norden, expect to read a lot more about her in 2013. Haug finished 11th at London Olympics, but since that memorable day in August, the German-born athlete finished fourth in Stockholm, runner-up in Yokohama and won in Auckland. Haug’s run of form towards the end of 2012 suggests there is a future superstar ready to emerge, and with the usual shift of some athletes to long course, 2013 could be her year to win the world title.
Angela Naeth
With the Canadian-born triathlete expected to make a transition into Ironman, Angela Naeth proves to be one of the most interesting studies of the 2013 season. Naeth has been a consistent performer on the Ironman 70.3 circuit for a few years now, collecting wins in Panama, St. Croix and Syracuse in 2012. A win at Rev 3 Portland and a fourth-place finish at the Hy Vee 5i50 U.S. Pro Championship in Des Moines had many expecting Naeth to be one of the real contenders for the win at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas. However, a tumble 19 miles into the bike effectively ended her day. To the credit of the ‘hard-nut’ Canadian, Naeth stuck it out to finish 17th. Not the result she was chasing, but a real show of strength and character. Naeth looks set to return to the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon in March and we will watch with great interest to see if she can improve on her second place there last season.
Credit: Delly Carr/ITU
The former ITU athlete/professional cyclist made his debut on the long course scene with a bang in 2012, taking out Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote and Ironman Cozumel in consecutive appearances. What made this so impressive for us was the fact that a few weeks prior to the win in Lanzarote, Ivan Raña finished eighth in the ITU WTS Grand Final in Auckland. Since that emphatic win in Cozumel, where Raña threw down a 2:44:05 marathon in blistering heat, there has been a lot of talk that the Spaniard could be the man to stop Pete Jacobs in Kona this season. While we’re probably all best served to keep our powder dry on the potential of a Kona victory, the simple fact is Raña is triathlon’s equivalent to a triple-threat. He swims in the front group thanks to his background in ITU; his days in the professional peloton means he will also have enough in the tank to stay with the leaders on the bike; and, as we’ve seen in Cozumel, running a sub-2:50 doesn’t seem to be an issue for him either. In order to guarantee his qualification for both Vegas and Kona, Raña will need to complete at least one other Ironman and a few 70.3s. If and when he does race, keep an eye on the Spanish superstar.
Credit: Janos Schmidt/ITU
Since missing out on selection for the London Olympics, Emma Snowsill has become somewhat of a forgotten name in Australian triathlon. The former Beijing gold medalist was particularly unlucky not to represent her country in London last year, but since finishing 17th at the ITU San Diego event in May, we have not seen her compete at a major triathlon to date. The question I think we all want to know is: where and when is Emma Snowsill going to race in 2013? Speculation has been rife that the Queenslander could make the step up to the 70.3 distance this year, but so far nothing has been confirmed from the Snowsill camp. The likely scenario is we’ll see Snowsill head to the United States for some 5i50 and LifeTime Fitness races at her preferred Olympic distance. Still, even if ‘Snowy’ is to take on the non-drafting events in the US, she’d want to start getting her mojo going on the TT/Tri bike before she gets there. Snowsill on her day is still one of the most talented triathletes on the planet, and with a run leg like hers, it would awesome to see her make the jump to 70.3 racing and have a crack at Las Vegas. However, the realist in us says that the Hy Vee 5i50 U.S. Pro Championship in Des Moines is more likely going to be her big goal for this season. Wherever she ends up, it’s going to be fascinating to follow Snowsill’s 2013 season.
Bernard Savage
The new head honcho of Triathlon Australia’s high performance program has an almighty task to bring our athletes up to the level of countries like Great Britain, France, Russia and Germany who’ve seemingly taken the sport to a new level over the past four years. Bernard Savage has worked with Swimming Australia’s high performance team for more than a decade in various roles. Most recently, Savage completed the role of national performance science manager and spent a lot of time working with Ian Thorpe in his return to competitive swimming. So far the talk of Savage and his qualifications has been positive, but the task to take Australia to top of the ITU tree won’t be easy. We look forward to tracking Savage’s season and see what he does differently to the previous administration.
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