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STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: A small Navy team including, from left, MIDN David Simpson, MIDN David Koehler, MIDN Scott Baxter and MIDN Lucy Hall, took part in an international aquathon in South Korea.
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Volume
49, No. 15, August 24 2006
By MIDN David Koehler
“Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!” was the catch-cry screamed by four Midshipmen emblazoned with green and gold face paint at the start line of the third annual Admiral Yi Cup International Aquathon held in Tongyeong city, South Korea, recently.
The four MIDN were selected at short notice to represent ADFA and the RAN in an international aquathon competition that included 47 competitors from naval colleges and defence academies around the globe.
The Aussies arrived in Seoul three days prior to the race where they had the chance to meet their hosts from the Korean Triathlon Federation and the other competitors from the US, UK, Japan, France, Russia, Egypt, and Korea.
At their first meeting it became apparent that there was a great disparity in experience between competitors, with some having never competed in such events, like our team, and others, like the US midshipmen, who were veterans of such competitions.
After three days of photographs with officials, visits to historically significant sights, and their own free time to immerse themselves in the local culture, it was time for the main event. The aquathon itself consisted of a 1km bay swim followed by a 10km run with a total of 272 entrants from school kids to elite athletes competing on the day.
The main event, however, was the Midshipmen’s race. While the run was relatively flat, competitors were faced with sweltering 41°C heat and an extremely humid environment, which proved to be considerably tougher than running in the chilly Canberra winter.
But even with the challenging conditions the race was held in high spirits, with competitors from all countries urging each other on throughout the event.
Despite their inexperience, the intense heat and tough competition, the four midshipmen from ADFA performed exceptionally well.
The stand-out performance of the day came from MIDN Scott Baxter, who despite only recently coming off a serious injury that stopped him running for six months, upset an American whitewash and came third overall with a super-quick time of 56.49 mins. MIDN David Koehler came in at 24th whilst MIDN David Simpson rounded out the Aussie males in 30th place.
While the female category had a significantly smaller field, MIDN Lucy Hall performed extremely well to finish just outside the medal winners, coming in 2 minutes behind the bronze in fourth place.
