Hanne De Vet is keen to put on a show this weekend as the women look to shine on the Gold Coast when they take centre stage on the opening weekend of the T100 Triathlon World Tour.
The Belgian athlete is excited about the prospect of this first ‘women-only’ pro event on the schedule and is more determined than ever to make the most of their time in the spotlight.
Organisers have split the men’s and women’s races into separate weekends this year, with each gender taking turns to race their four events before they all meet up together in December’s Qatar championship final.
Men will start in Singapore
It means that while the women start their campaign on the Gold Coast this weekend, the men do not get underway until they meet up in Singapore on April 25 – leaving the professional women to enjoy all of the pre-race limelight.
Speaking to T100 this week, De Vet admits there is a big difference in the atmosphere heading into this weekend’s race as she looks to get the season off to a strong start.
“It’s always a bit of jumping into the unknown and not really knowing exactly how the body is going to show up for the first one of the year,” she says. “We only raced in Doha in December, so it’s not been that much of a training block yet.
“I’m feeling healthy, so that’s the most important one. Hopefully the body shows up to race as well, but I’m feeling quite good about it.
‘It’s quieter without the boys’
“It’s way quieter now without the boys around. I’ve been out here for a while training and have had a lot of women coming up saying how they were all super excited just to see the women race this weekend.
“I guess you don’t really hear it often that they get excited for the women’s race. So I think that’s really, really nice to hear that people are actually getting excited for women racing. It definitely pushes us a bit harder to hopefully make a good race to watch for them.”
The field has been hit by several big-name dropouts in recent weeks, with the likes of world number one Kate Waugh (GBR), Lucy Byram (GBR), Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) and Julie Derron (SUI) joining Lucy Charles-Barclay in missing the race.
Travel both in and out of Australia has also been impacted by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and Swiss athlete Imogen Simmonds says she is grateful that her training plans meant she was already in the country before flights started to be affected.
‘I’m very fortunate to be here’
“I’m very excited and ready to see what I have in me and to have some fun,” she told T100 this week. “Ultimately, with everything that’s going on in the world, I’m very fortunate to be here. I was here already, and just with people being out for various reasons, it means that maybe the field is slightly less dense than usual.
“But ultimately, a race is still a race, and you never know. You know, these wild cards – I’m a wild card, so you never know who’s going to turn up and what form they’re going to be in. Hopefully, I’m in decent shape, and hopefully, on Saturday, I can show that.”
After the Gold Coast, the women will race in Spain (May 23), Vancouver (August 15) and Dubai (November 14), while the men, having started in Singapore, travel to San Francisco (June 6), the French Riviera (September 19), and Saudi Arabia (November).
While no men are competing in the pro T100 event this weekend, one of the world’s leading triathletes has confirmed that he will be taking part in the associated 10k event, which is being held on Sunday at 06:00 local time.
Short-course star and WTCS world champion Matt Hauser will line up for the race as he bids for a new PB at the distance.
Places are still available for runners to join the 10k, which starts at Broadwater Parklands and finishes along the esplanade to Surfers Paradise. Those interested in signing up for Sunday’s race can do so HERE.
For all the start times and details on how to watch the race this weekend, click HERE.
