IRONMAN 70.3 world champion Melissa Hauschildt takes her first steps towards Kona this weekend. Since former steeplechaser Melissa Hauschildt stormed on to the scene with her first world title in 2011, everyone has wondered when she would step up to the full IRONMAN distance. The 31-year-old from Queensland, Australia does that this weekend at IRONMAN Australia at Port Macquarie.
Hauschildt goes into the race as the current 70.3 IRONMAN world champion, ITU Long Distance World Champion and Abu Dhabi winner.
"Defending my IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship title and the ITU one were always on my radar for 2014 and I’d thought about maybe adding another world championship title to the list, maybe a duathlon, but I’m ready to give the full distance a go," says Hauschildt. "2013 was an amazing year. I couldn’t really have asked for more. My number one goal was to win in Vegas with a podium in HyVee. It’s not very often you get to the end of the year having ticked off every one of your goals just as you dreamed at the beginning of the year."
While no-one will be surprised to see Hauschildt move to the longer distance, she’s played her cards close to her chest about exactly when she would make the move.
Despite being new to the distance, Hauschildt could be forgiven for feeling the pressure of others in her first race.
"I used not to read about triathlon or even know anything about athletes I might be competing against, however, my husband and coach Jared does fill me in the day before a race on who I’m up against and what I need to do to win."
But Hauschildt, who has won back-to-back in Abu Dhabi, two IRONMAN 70.3 World titles in three years as well as a long distance race in Thailand, is clear about her ambitions.
"My long term goal is to win the IRONMAN World Championship, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens on Sunday. I do feel a lot stronger now I’m in my fourth year of racing. There’s room for improvement with my swim but my bike and run are up there with the best in the world so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens out there on Sunday."
Pro Men: Pro Women:
Luke Bell Melissa Hauschildt
Paul Ambrose Hillar Biscay
Matty White Lisa Marangon
Peter Robertson Melanie Burke
Denis Cherot Tamsyn Hayes
Luke Witmore Dimity Lee Duke
Elliot Holtham Megumi Shigaki
Jason Shortis
Nick Baldwin
Simon Cochrane
Darren Jenkins
Jon Woods
Dan Brown