Former Tweed hurdler Melissa Rollison has taken out the World Triathlon championships in her rookie year.
Rollison, a member of the Tweed Border Striders in the ’90s, came home strongly to take the women’s professional title in the demanding rolling hills of Las Vegas.
No stranger to the world stage, the former Tweed runner was a junior world champion and won the gold medal in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane. After struggling with shin injuries she came back to finish with silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Continued injuries saw her retire from middle distances racing. However, the talented athlete, who was once a fixture running round the roads of Tweed Heads, was not to be outdone, switching to triathlon.
The always determined Rollison was quick to achieve success, finishing second in the 2010 Asia-Pacific Ironman 70.3 Championships.
She wasn’t the only former Border Striders out there, with her Kingscliff-based clubmate, Paul Matthews competing in the men’s professional event.
Paul was third out of the water and was in the lead pack on the bike……..dropped back, ran about halfway through the run and finished 6th.
His dad Gerry said Paul was happy with the result after racing over three consecutive weekends.
“Craig Alexander won a great race. We got up at 11.30pm and watched the live webcast for four hours, the things that you do,” Gerry Matthews said.
“It was a great day for the Trek/Kswiss team with Paul’s team-mates finishing 2nd, 5th and him 6th … so they had good coverage as these guys remained at the pointy end all of the race.
“Plus, five Aussie boys in the top ten. Paul finished 11th last year at Worlds in Clearwater, Florida ….this new course in Las Vegas was demanding with many rolling hills along Lake Las Vegas. The top six were: 1. Australia 2. USA 3. Canada 4. Austria 5. Australia 6. Australia.
“When running over the finish line, Craig ‘Crowie’ Alexander grabbed the Boxing Kangaroo flag that we had given to (Paul’s former coach) Jeff Collier. It was the flag that Paul carried over the line when he won the Under 19s in Edmonton Canada in 2001….Paul and ‘Crowie’ are great mates so we thought that was very appropriate.
“Also Brian Alderman from our tri club (TVT) came 6th in the 65 to 69 age group at the ITU Olympic Distance World Championships in Bejing, China – a great weekend.”
