Forecasts

Day 3 of Busso weather watch continues...

Actually, it is not my plan to write another blog about the weather, as interesting as that would probably be. Although, once again, I think it has improved marginally. They are no longer forecasting storms and the amount of rain forecast for the day is 3 to 6mm, which isn't a heap so that is good. The winds are still concerning with a lot of northerly in it, but I think it is marginally lighter. Based on the current forecast I would say that the swim could be messy, but not cancelled. Winning. Of course you never know what turns up on the day, and often our morning winds aren't as strong as is forecast, so Saturday morning could actually be quite fine. Time will tell. So far so good though and hopefully things look better again tomorrow.

I saw that the men's and women's pro fields were announced today.

Men

Women

Interesting fields, no internationals (unless you count New Zealand which I guess technically is another country). But certainly no big international names. Some big Aussie and NZ names though, some guy called Craig Alexander, Mike Phillips who is in great form, Sam Betten is also travelling very well at the moment, Callum Millward is always fun. From the local WA athletes Matt Burton is on a phenomenal run of form and I think we haven't really seen Oli Stenning race to his full potential. Of all of them I am really looking forward to seeing Matt, he is just racing so damn well at the moment so it will be great to see what he can do. I would like to see Levi do well (not actually sure he is in town), but he has been a little off form this season so unfortunately I can't see him getting right to the pointy end. My pick for the win?  Hmmmm, Mike Phillips I think, Crowie will be in contention (because he always is) and so will Matt and Sam Betten. My pick is for those guys to fight for the podium, although I could easily be wrong. Great to see such a big field though with 20 guys down for the start.

The women's field is a bit smaller with 12 registered to start. Of those I know at least two who won't be racing, Kerry Morris who unfortunately is still recovering from a nasty crash recently and Alise Selsmark who recently found out she is pregnant. Some big names remaining on that list though.

As always number 1 on my list is Emily Loughnan. For many Western Australians Emily is still the winner from last year. The DQ that Emily received in 2018 was legitimate and fair enough, but most people consider that she still would have won. I will be cheering most loudly for her and hoping with everything that she can replicate her race from last year. Would be awesome to see.

Beyond Emily well it is hard to go past Sarah Crowley who is obviously a quality athlete. Like Emily she suffered a DQ last year and so I suspect she will be here with a little something to prove. I wouldn't be surprised if she attacked this race pretty strongly and if she does, well watch out everyone else.

If Kerry was starting then she would have been one of my picks, but unfortunately that won't be happening. Felicity Sheedy-Ryan was a DNS last year, but if she makes a start this year then she is always a contender. Felicity recently qualified for the Super-League triathlon so she is obviously fit and racing well. Beyond those guys, well hard to know, we could see anyone of another of people stepping up. The indefatigable Kate Bevilaqua is always up there. Laura Dennis could well be up the pointy end. I see those positions of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th really up for grabs.

Very exciting. Should be a great day no matter what the weather does.