A nova coqueluche do triatlo australiano??

Kirra is on her way to the top of triathlon, or not??

12:00a.m. 5th December 2008

| By Peter Gardiner

She is built like Olympic champion triathlete Emma Snowsill and her coach is backing her to rise to the elite levels in the next two to four years.

Yet 22-year-old Kirra Seidel of Maroochydore has only realised that she has a talent for the swim/ride/run discipline in the past year.

Before that the Australia Zoo worker was just another anonymous jogger – mind you a zippy one – running around Alexandra Headland where she was finally talented spotted by Toby Coote of the Sunshine Coast Triathlon Academy.

Seidel said a friend encouraged her to have a go at triathlons after she took up cycling, basically as a means of transport.

“She did triathlons and said I was pretty good at cycling and should give it a go and I went in a short race at Raby Bay and won it,” Seidel said.

Now cycling to get around looks destined to take her around the world on the elite triathlon circuit.

This year she announced herself on the scene by taking out the Noosa Triathlon open women’s event behind Snowsill, where she just failed to make the qualifying time for her professional licence. This would have enabled her to compete against the Gold Coast legend and other elites.

Undaunted Seidel continued on her quest to eventually join the world circuit and went to Adelaide last weekend to compete in the Australian Traithlon Challenge Series.

Coote said there was a fair bit of pressure riding on the event, because Seidel knew she had to win to nail her licence. She responded in magnificent fashion to win the Olympic distance event easily on Sunday

The event ’s website said Seidel was dominant in clocking 2hr 4min 44sec to beat home Regina Wright by more than five minutes – even though not everything went according to plan.

“I went around the wrong buoy in the swim leg which probably cost me 200 metres by the time I realised my mistake and I shot past the end the cycle finish and had to stand on the brakes, but it all worked out okay in the end,” she said.

Seidel has put herself in contention for selection in the Australian under-23 side with her next important races in that regard, the Luke Harrop Memorial on the Gold Coast and the Australian Championships in Perth.

Kirralee SEIDEL
Event:	Olympic Triathlon	From:
Age:	22	Team:
Gender:	Female	Club:
Category:	20 - 24 years
Status:	Finished
Race No:	416
Country:
State:

Results

Start Time:	08:22:55	Overall Pos:	98
Finish Time:	02:04:44	Gender Pos:	1
Net Time:	02:04:44	Category Pos:	1

Splits

Split	Race Time	Time of Day	Split Time	Overall Pos	Category Pos	Gender Pos	Dist. Done	Dist. To Go	Speed
Swim	00:24:04	08:46:59	00:24:04	47	2	3	0	0	16:03
Cycle	01:26:15	09:49:10	01:02:11	230	1	4	0	0	38.6
Run	02:04:43	10:27:38	00:38:27	66	1	2	0	0	3:50