New Zealand’s women triathletes take to the course at Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo today, no doubt buoyed by Hayden Wilde’s bronze medal yesterday.
Nicole van der Kaay and Ainsley Thorpe will line up for their Olympics debut likely having gleaned insight on the course from their teammates.
Twenty-five-year-old van der Kaay’s parents John and Anna will be watching from the New Zealand Team base on Auckland’s waterfront at the Cloud.
“I’m a little bix anxious for her,” father John said.
“Just mainly anxious, I think she’ll do well, both the girls will do well, just hope that they get a good start and who knows how it will play out.”
“Who knows how it will play out,” John van der Kaay says.
The first leg is the 1.5km ocean swim, which wasn’t always easy for the Taupō athlete.
“She was always very hesitant about the sea, but once she got involved in surf [lifesaving], she was away!”
“She enjoyed the water, enjoyed swimming. My wife Anna introduced her to a lot of the water sports and surf lifesaving and she just took to it like a duck to water,” John said.
Triathlon New Zealand’s chief executive Claire Beard was thrilled at the individual men’s result.
“It’s next level exciting. We’re a tiny sport with a huge community behind us – we’re just blown away,” she said.
Wilde and Tayler Reid’s performances bode well for the mixed team event on Saturday, where they’ll link up with Thorpe and van der Kaay.
Claire Beard says the result was “next level”.
“We’ve got two such strong men to support the women in the team and we’re just super excited and right behind the team.”
The women’s individual triathlon coverage begins at 9:30am Tuesday.
WATCH THE OLYMPICS: TVNZ 1 and TVNZ OnDemand feature 12 hours of free-to-air action focussed on Kiwi athletes each afternoon and evening, while Sky TV has Olympics coverage across 12 channels and streaming platforms.
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