I also grew up in the southern part of New Zealand, so Wanaka is a very special place for me to get my first big win. The crowd was amazing and running up the finish chute to victory surrounded by friends, family and supporters is something I will never ever forget. I had a perfect build up for the race based at my parents place in Queenstown 45 minute drive from Wanaka.
My coach Gordon Walker had done an exceptional job of designing a training regime to get me peaking for Wanaka. I nailed every session and took a lot of confidence into the race.
ST: Talk about your race day. Jamie: I could not have asked for the race to unfold any better for me. I led out of the water after applying some pressure early in the swim and establishing a lead group of three.
Then I set my race up with an exceptionally good ride. J osh Rix from Australia and I rode together for the first km and were able to create a decent gap to the chase group. But as Josh started to fade into the head wind after Cromwell and with chase group starting to close in, I decided to ride away solo and stay committed to taking a lead into the marathon. The last 50km into that wind was extremely hard so I was pretty happy to come off the bike still holding onto a 4-minute lead.
For only my second marathon, the run went pretty smoothly. I was able to settle into some rhythm early on without any pressure from the chasers. With 2km to go, I got my last split of 6 minutes to 2nd, then I relaxed and enjoyed the finish chute for what was the most amazing experience! ST: Looking at the finish times makes it appear that the course was quite tough. Jamie: For sure. Wanaka is always going to be a tough course. Even without the wind we had on Saturday the course is tough.
All these factors make for a very challenging course in itself and when combined with the brutal southern winds that blew on race day, I really do take my hat off to all the amateur athletes that got themselves through it. Great effort! ST: Having been up front all day, did you find it mentally taxing to worry about what is going on behind you or do you prefer that versus the hunt for the lead?
Jamie: I found myself in a position where I just had to stay at the front and continue to increase the gap. It was a great position to be in, so mentally it was very encouraging.
I was a little bit worried about moving away solo on the bike into that head wind, but in the end it was a very good decision. ST: When you talk about having to ride solo from k on, some folks say, what is the big deal, can't draft anyway.
How much of an advantage do you think it is to be draft legal with someone else? Jamie: Into a head wind like we got on Saturday there are physical benefits from sitting meters behind someone. But the mental benefits are also significant as you can keep each other going and motivated.
ST: At what point did you think this title is yours? Jamie: I got a time split at about km on the bike that the gap was out to 7 minutes to the chase group.
At that stage I thought things were going very well. But the gap had closed back down to 4-minutes at T2 so I still had to run well to stay ahead.
It was then I felt confident. ST: The other guys on the podium were actually quite a bit older than you. Is that somewhat of an inspiration to you? Whyte grew up on a farm at Waianiwa, between Invercargill and Riverton, and studied at Southland Boys High School from before attending Otago University's surveying school in Dunedin from He was bitten by the triathlon bug during his last year at university, while working a summer holiday job in Queenstown. He entered the national standard distance triathlon championships held that year in Queenstown, finished in the top 10 in the age group, and qualified for the world age group championships, also held in Queenstown.
He continued with triathlon after moving to Auckland in to work for property development firm Woods, but came to understand his physiology was not well suited to short courses and 10km runs. As a strong time-trial cyclist he felt more at home in non-drafting races so he began building his endurance over half-ironman distances before debuting in Ironman Canada in , finishing 13th.
Ogden finished second in January and took 5min out of Whyte's 7min lead during the marathon. But they are great athletes and I have raced them a bit this year," Whyte said. The last Challenge Wanaka was Whyte's second long-distance race and he relished being the unknown factor. I suppose this time the other athletes may have an eye on me. Last time I was able to get up the road as less of a concern to them. I think that's a key part of the race.
Whyte is also looking forward to racing his compatriots, who include winner Richard Ussher, Keiran Doe and Keegan Williams. Neither is Richard, but Richard is strong on the bike and the off-road nature on the run will favour him You can't write Richard off, for sure," he said. The form of Petr Vabrousek Czech Republic and winner Marc Pschebezin Germany would be more unknown because they would be racing in their off-season, he said.
Whyte has been coached since by former Coast to Coast champion Gordon Walker. Rising New Zealand professional triathlete Jamie Whyte has claimed the biggest victory of his career by taking out Challenge Wanaka. The Southlander fought off gusting winds and a tough challenge on the run from veteran Aussie Courtney Ogden and Kiwi Bevan McKinnon with a wire-to-wire win in 9hrs 3min at the fifth Challenge Wanaka long-course triathlon.
The race covers a 3. The year-old was second at the Taiwan Whyte rated the bike ride through swirling winds as "excruciatingly hard", but said things didn't get any easier when it came time for the run. It was a matter of gutsing it out. Ogden, who took a win at the Ironman Western Australia in December, came past McKinnon at the 40km mark on the marathon and also rated the day as a tough one at the office: "I was pretty much in survival mode from the first lap [of the run]," he said.
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