Australia will be the only country contesting the Triathlon competition in Tokyo with a full quota of six athletes.
Overview
Three men and three women earned the honour of representing Australia in Tokyo during the World Triathlon qualifying period, which shows the depth of the Triathlon Australia program. The team will be spearhead by two-time Olympians Ashleigh Gentle (QLD) and Aaron Royle (NSW), who made their debuts in Rio in 2016.
Triathlon Team
Ones To Watch
Rio team mates Ashleigh Gentle and Aaron Royle will be joined by four Games rookies, Jaz Hedgeland (WA) and Emma Jeffcoat (NSW) in the women’s race and in the men Matthew Hauser (QLD) and Jake Birtwhistle (TAS). Australia’s women have shared all the medals since Michellie Jones first won silver at the birthplace of Olympic Triathlon on Sydney Harbour in the year 2000.
Maybe the 2020 Games will be time for the men to shine with Birtwhistle, the boy from Launceston, who has a dynamic run leg, a real podium chance in the individual men’s race. Birtwhistle is the only man in the field to have won two World Series races in 2019 – taking out Leeds and Hamburg – to lay serious claims as an Olympic medallist – in a realm where Australia’s men are yet to win a medal in the past five Olympic Games. Gentle will be looking to turn the clock back to 2018 when she won the World Series Grand Final on the Gold Coast, at her second Olympic outing.
The Format
The individual Triathlon is run over the Standard distance of 1.5km swim (1x1km and 1x500m-laps); 40km bike (eight-laps) and a 10km run (four-laps) while the inaugural Mixed Relay event will see Australia among the 18 teams made up of two men and two women who each complete a “Super Sprint” distance triathlon of a 300m swim; 6.8km (two-lap) bike course and a 1km run (2-laps).
France, the three-time world champions from 2018, 2019 and 2020, will start favourites to win the inaugural Mixed Relay. But, Australia has emerged as a real medal threat in this exciting addition to the Olympic Triathlon program – winning the World Championship in 2017, silver in 2018 and bronze in 2019 and the Commonwealth Games gold in 2018. Birtwhistle, Hauser and Gentle were all in the winning teams in 2017 and 2018. And if Birtwhistle gets a sniff on the final run, then it could well spoil the French connection.
Did You Know?
- Australia is one of only three countries, along with Switzerland and Great Britain to have won five medals since Sydney in 2000 and all three, along with New Zealand are the only countries to have won a medal of each colour.
- Australia’s medallists came in Sydney 2000 – Michellie Jones (Silver); Athens 2004 – Loretta Harrop (Silver); Beijing 2008 – Emma Snowsill (Gold), Emma Moffatt (Bronze); London 2012 – Erin Densham (Bronze).
- Triathlon Australia’s latest Hall of Fame inductee Emma Moffatt and Erin Densham are Australia’s most decorated Olympians, each attending three Games – Beijing, where Moffatt won bronze in 2008, London, where Densham won bronze in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
- Australia’s Emma Snowsill holds the record for the biggest winning margin, a whopping 67 seconds over Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal when he won gold in Beijing in 2008 – also recording the fastest ever Olympic 10km run split of 33.16.
- Tokyo Olympic debutant Emma Jeffcoat – the former Dee Why surf lifesaver is the fourth Australian Olympic triathlete with the name Emma – joining Emma Snowsill (2008) and Emma Moffatt (2008, 2012 and 2016) and Emma Jackson (2012).
- Australia’s triathlon’s six strong team hail from four different States – two each from Queensland and NSW and one each from WA and Tasmania.
Competition Dates
Day 3 - Monday July 26: Men’s Individual Triathlon (7.30am AEST) Odaiba Marine Park
Day 4 - Tuesday July 27: Women’s Individual Triathlon (7.30am AEST) Odaiba Marine Park
Day 8 - Saturday July 31: Mixed Relay (8.30am AEST) Odaiba Marine Park
Triathlon Snapshot
