Casey ARC physiotherapists, from left: Andrew Ritter, Mike van Alphen and Christian Schiebold have qualified for the Gold Coast Triathlon World Championships after a strong performance at this month’s BRW Corporate Triathlon.By Marc McGowan
IT MAY have started as a bonding exercise, but the Casey ARC’s multi-talented physiotherapy team’s triathlon exploits have qualified them for the world championships.
Experienced triathlete Christian Schiebold, 36, Andrew Ritter, 35, and Mike van Alphen, 24, finished fifth at this month’s BRW Corporate Triathlon to qualify for the Gold Coast Triathlon World Championships in September.
Only the top five teams qualified for the international showcase.
The trio’s time of two hours, 13 minutes and 36 seconds was actually slower than last year’s 21st-placed effort, but came in far tougher conditions.
Each member of the team completed the Elwood course that involved a 400m swim, 10km bike ride and 4km run.
Schiebold and Ritter, who is marrying fiancee Christine on Saturday, have worked at the Narre Warren clinic for five years, while Van Alphen has been there for two-and-a-half years.
“We did it last year out of fun and bonding between colleagues here at the practice,” Schiebold said. “We got 21st and thought that was pretty good and we’ve been training throughout the year. I’ve done triathlons longer, but this is the other two’s first year at it, so it’s been quite successful.”
Schiebold said their aim was to finish in the top 10 at this month’s event, but admitted that was always going to be a difficult task to achieve.
“We wanted to do better than 21st – that was our expectation,” he said.“We sort of jokingly said we’ll try and get under the top 10 and let’s give it a crack, but we didn’t expect it.”
Schiebold was heavily involved in the sport in the mid-1990s and has competed in five ironmans over the years.
But his participation now is mostly about workplace camaraderie.
“The best part of it is just the morale within the clinic and it’s also given us a real sense of team,” Schiebold said.
So what are their expectations for the world championships?
“We kind of feel like we’ve bitten off a bit more than we can chew, so, just from an aspect of achieving, we’re happy just to participate,” Schiebold said.
“If all goes well on the day, that’s great, but we’re happy just to be there.”
