TOP CLASS: Hannah Knighton wins the under-19 girls' race at the NZ Secondary Schools Triathlon Championships. PHOTO: File
TOP CLASS: Hannah Knighton wins the under-19 girls' race at the NZ Secondary Schools Triathlon Championships. PHOTO: File
Some stellar performances in the water, on the bike and in running shoes has seen Tauranga Triathlon Club teenager Hannah Knighton reach a major goal.
She has secured her place in the New Zealand Junior Triathlon team to compete at the ITU World Junior Elite Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, inSeptember.
Knighton has also been selected into the High Performance Sport New Zealand Pathway to Podium Programme, a nationwide talent development programme helping emerging athletes and coaches be better prepared for the demands of a life in high-performance sport.
Hamilton-based Knighton has been trained by Tauranga coach Chris Willett for more than three years and spends most school holidays staying in Papamoa with her grandparents so that she can train with him and the Tauranga triathlon academy.
She also travels to Tauranga on Saturday afternoons to train with the group whenever possible.
"From the outset, I could tell that Hannah had the mindset of an athlete who could go far," Willett said.
"She has regularly shown how committed she is to excellence and it has been a fun journey to watch her progress and learn to this point. We are playing the 'long game' and understand that Rotterdam will be a big step forward in seeing where she stacks up, with one eye on the Worlds Gold Coast in 2018 as her time to really shine."
Knighton has racked up a long list of impressive multisport achievements over the past 12 months including being the first female home in the Tinman Sprint Distance Triathlon in November and the Kinloch Sprint Distance Triathlon in February, which she won by more than two minutes.
Add to this a third place at the New Zealand National Junior Elite Championships (16-19yr) and a second in the National Junior Elite (16-19yr) five-event series, and it is no surprise that Triathlon New Zealand has identified her as one of our brightest young multisport talents.
Knighton had a clean sweep at the recent New Zealand Secondary Schools' Triathlon Championships. She won gold medals in the U19 Individual Triathlon, the Team Triathlon, the Aquathlon and in the Tag Team Triathlon (with teammates from Waikato Dio and Tauranga Boys' College).
Knighton also won the Individual Triathlon by over two minutes after being first out of the water and extending her lead on the bike and run legs.
