Harrop returns to elite ranks in brothers race
Australia’s former golden girl Loretta Harrop will return to the elite ranks on Sunday at the Gold Coast Tri – Luke Harrop Memorial, a race that honours her brother Luke each year at Southport Broadwater Parklands.
The Athens Olympic silver medallist and former World Champion who retired from elite competition in 2007 to focus on being a full time mother has continued to keep in good shape but has stepped up the tempo and been back into some serious training for this weekend over the Sprint distance course (750m swim, 20km cycle, 5km run).
“I’ve been swimming and running most days and also squeezed in three bike sessions this week, so I’m not expecting anything great but wanted to get in there and mix it up with some of these young ones and see if I can just keep up,” said the mother of two.
She will need to bring her ‘A’ game to keep up with the future female stars of triathlon, Emma Jackson, Ashleigh Gentle and Courtney Dutton. Jackson acquitted herself well in her first World Championship Series race last weekend in Sydney, she was in the lead group for the first two legs but faded in the run. Gentle will be looking to make up for a disappointing performance at the Mooloolaba ITU World Cup after good early season results, while Dutton raced to a bronze in the ITU Singapore Cup behind Erin Densham and Amy Roberts.
Harrop is still a passionate follower of the sport and keeps her eye on the racing scene but has reservations on the style of racing among the elite.
It’s just not that exciting watching big packs ride around and it was never my style. Nicky (Hackett), former World Champion and I just raced flat out, off the front, there doesn’t seem that sort of intensity or anyone pushing the pace in the bike these days,” said Harrop.
Harrop is full of praise for the likes of Olympic champion Emma Snowsill and reigning World Champion Emma Moffatt who race aggressively. Also identifying Under 23 World Championships silver medallist James Seear who adopted this tactic at the recent Mooloolaba ITU World Cup to claim bronze.
“I don’t think it’s conducive to producing the calibre of athlete Australia is used too,” said Harrop.
“I really think we need to get back to our former glory days when Australia really dominated the world scene and that’s about tough racing,” said Harrop.
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Harrop after a bike/run session this week someone had stolen her swanky looking New Balance orthotic running shoes.
“In all my years of racing I’ve never had that happen and will have to dash out and buy a new pair for Sunday.”
Joining her in the male elite ranks former Junior World Champion Chris Hill who has been doing some secret training of his own with AIS Senior Triathlon Coach Shaun Stephens.
“Loretta and I actually wanted to race each other in the mates wave but they’re separate male/female categories, so the next best thing was entering the elite race.
“Last year I raced in my age group but have been doing a ‘bit’ more training since then, nothing that will see me on the podium, but like Loretta nice to mix it with the young ones again,” said Hill.
The former world number one will be among a 40 plus strong field and up against some of our best youngsters, Australian Junior Series winner and round four victor Drew Viles. Brisbane’s Josh Maeder will also be a title contender with his silver medal performance at The ITU Singapore Asian Premium Cup Triathlon last weekend.
The event pays tribute to Luke, remembering his zest for life and the race that Luke loved so much.
“Life is very different to what it was when I was an elite triathlete. The one race a year that I do compete in is the Luke Harrop Memorial, which obviously is quite dear to me,” said Harrop.
The Gold Coast event is the final race in the Luke Harrop Memorial Bursary. The other two events being Mooloolaba and Noosa triathlons, all three were Luke’s favourite races.
The Bursary has so far granted over $79,000 in funding to rising stars who have gone on to represent Australia at world championship events.
A cash grant of $1000 is awarded to the U23 male and female winner at each of these events with a further bonus of $1500 given to the overall winners (male and female) of the Luke Harrop Memorial Bursary.
The event also doubles as the Gatorade Queensland Tri Series Grand Final with a record field for the series already signed up. Organisers are expecting final numbers to be in the vicinity of 2300. Racing gets underway from 6.45am.
Race 7 Distances:
QTS Triathlon 750m swim / 20km cycle / 5km run
NAB Enticer 300m swim / 10km cycle / 2.5km run
The Courier-Mail Kool Kids Tri 100m swim / 2km cycle / 400m run
