It was a great result for local Armidale girl Gillian Backhouse at the World ITU Triathlon last weekend – on the podium, third in the Elite Women’s Race in freezing conditions in Edmonton, Canada. The 24-year-old who now lives in Queensland, dug deep to finish third behind Great Britain’s Vicky Holland and Bermuda’s Flora Duffy. Australia’s top finisher in the recent Rio Olympic test event, Backhouse was back on the same course where she won a silver medal in the ITU world championship under-23 race last year. Apparently it was so cold that Duffy admitted she couldn’t feel her feet throughout the entire bike ride.
As many ACC members will recall, it wasn’t that long ago that Gillian was racing triathlons at TAS and joining us on training bike rides on Sunday mornings around Invergowrie and Uralla and now a place at the Rio Olympics is within reach – way to go Gillian!
Those with particularly long memories will also recall Gillian turning up for her first ride in sandshoes and a rack bolted to the back of her bike. Following advice from Wilko, the rack was only sited once, proper cycling shoes quickly appeared, and the rest is … a whole lot of hard work and persistence. Fantastic achievement – go Gillian!