In 2023, there was a dominant force on the women’s Oceania triathlon scene.
During the Antipodean season, one athlete proved untouchable at every race they attended. Thereafter, they went on to be the region’s best performer at the WTCS level. For combining local dominance and world-level success, there was thus no real question over who would be dubbed the Oceania Female Triathlete of 2023.
Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL)
Nicole Van Der Kaay was superlative in the early part of the season. She crushed the Oceania Cups in Wanaka and Taupo and became the Oceania champion over Sprint and Olympic distances. To cap a brilliant run of form in her home continent, she won the New Plymouth World Cup.
In doing so she became the only woman from Oceania to win a world-level race in 2023.
After enjoying such a notable run of success, the question remained as to whether Van Der Kaay would be able to replicate her form throughout the year. Two top-8 finishes in the WTCS, as she placed 6th in Hamburg and 8th in Sunderland, dispelled any doubts.
She was the only woman from the region to log a top-10 result in the Series and ended up ranked 19th overall, making her Oceania’s top performer.
At every level, then, from Oceania Cup to World Cup to WTCS, Van Der Kaay was the best female triathlete on the continent.
Honourable Mentions
Natalie Van Coevorden was the next best WTCS performer after Van Der Kaay. The Australian took 28th place overall after recording top-20 finishes in Yokohama (14th), Cagliari (16th) and Paris (19th). She also placed 21st in Pontevedra. Her consistency in the Series made her the top Australian woman by a fairly comfortable margin and served a reminder of her enduring class at the highest level in the sport.
Ainsley Thorpe also achieved top-20 WTCS finishes by taking 17th place in both Paris and Abu Dhabi. After Van Der Kaay and Van Coevorden, she was the only other woman to make it into the top-20 on more than one occasion. Moreover, Thorpe won a silver medal at the New Plymouth World Cup, making her one of only two Oceania women to do so.
Charlotte McShane almost joined Van Der Kaay and Thorpe as a World Cup medallist in 2023. She finished 4th in Huatulco. Her result in Mexico was actually the only top-5 World Cup finish by an Oceania athlete other than Van Der Kaay and Thorpe. To go with that, she earned Continental Cup wins in Busselton and Subic Bay which were her first victories since claiming the World U23 title a whole decade earlier.
With a balance of youth and experience in the Oceania female ranks, it remains to be seen if anyone will be able to overcome Van Der Kaay in the coming season. Seeing as she last lost a race on her home continent in April 2022, it will definitely be a challenge to do so.
