Winning the Australian sprint triathlon title is one of very few repeats from last year that Emma Moffatt wants.
The two-time world champion and Beijing Olympics bronze medallist started her 2012 racing calendar on Sunday the same way she did 12 months ago, taking out the short distance title in Geelong.
But winning the 2011 sprint championship and last December’s announcement that Moffatt and partner Brad Kahlefeldt had secured early nominations for the London Olympics team were rare highlights in the worst year of her career.
“It’s probably similar to last year, but hopefully I can have better results after this one,” Moffatt said of her early form.
“I’m obviously super-motivated with being selected for the Olympics.
“Maybe last year I was lacking a little bit of that and, after having such a bad year, you come back even hungrier.
“You don’t want to repeat the same results.”
Moffatt is far from fully fit, but she still dominated Sunday’s 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run event.
She shared the lead for much of the bike with New Zealander Teresa Adam and then broke away at the start of the run.
Moffatt crossed the line in one hour one minute and 35 seconds, with German Anne Haug 1:08 behind.
British triathlete Liz Blatchford was next in 1:02:58 and Australian Erin Densham recovered from a poor swim and bike to post the fastest run split of the women’s race.
Densham, who is also aiming for London selection, was fourth in 1:03:04.
Moffatt has undergone an off-season overhaul, going back to Craig Walton as her coach after being trained by Kahlefeldt.
She is also working on her cycling with Olympic road race gold medallist Sara Carrigan.
“It’s an important year for us both to just focus on our individual goals and not to have to worry about a relationship in that as well,” Moffatt said of no longer having Kahlefeldt as her coach.
While Moffatt starred on Sunday, several members of the Australian men’s Olympic squad had below-par races.
Frenchman Laurent Vidal (55:19) outsprinted British triathlete Will Clarke by two seconds to win their race.
New Zealander Tony Dodds (55:40) was third and Queenslander Drew Box won the Australian title with his fourth placing in 55:41.
Box and Aaron Royle, who was fifth, are Australian under-23 competitors whose Olympic focus is 2016.
London hopefuls Chris McCormack (seventh) and Courtney Atkinson (10th) paid for 15-second penalties incurred for violating strict rules about the transitions.
Fellow Olympic hopeful Brendan Sexton was forced out of the race with a bike problem.
“I don’t know how it’s going to happen come the London Olympics – you’re going to lose the gold medal because you dropped the swim cap outside a box,” McCormack said of his penalty.
In McCormack’s case, he correctly dropped his bike helmet into a container, but it bounced out.
Also on Sunday, Clayton Fettell and Belinda Granger won the Geelong long-course triathlon.
