Short and Sweet: Supermum heading to Rio, Turia Pitt completes ironman and triathletes, cyclists star

A SUPERMUM is heading to Rio, Turia Pitt goes the distance and surfer Steph Gilmore’s new passion. All in this week’s SHORT AND SWEET.

Lisa Wightman, Lachlan McCarthur and their son Pete

• This could be one of the best sports comeback ever
• No ‘crap’ for our women on waves
• Sailors pull in five medal haul
• Racing to Rio: Strange record

A MARATHON mum has stamped her ticket to a third Olympic Games

Burns victim Turia Pitt achieves a dream at the Australian ironman

A triathlete sets a new mark in a major race.

The Swifts fall to the mighty Firebirds in a weird weekend of netball results.

And our cyclists and beach volleyballers impress.

All this and more in Short an Sweet, women’s sport wrap.

GOING THE DISTANCE

She’s a marathons supermum driven by the need to make her young son Peter proud.

Lisa Weightman has been named in the Olympic team alongside Jess Trengove and Milly Clark with the trio ranked fifth, sixth and eighth on the Australian All-time list respectively.

A 37 Weightman is the oldest of the trio and the only mother.

“Rio to me, is about family sacrifice, team work and persistence,’’ Weightman said.

“I recently had a charming little boy and I am so glad he will get to see me run on TV in the green and gold — I want to make him proud of his mum.”

Marathon runner Lisa Weightman, husband Lachlan McArthur and their son Peter.

In January, a little over a year after giving birth to Peter, Weightman finished third in the Houston Marathon.

Teammate Clark is making her Olympic debut at 26 while Trengove, 28, will appear at her second Games

It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done

PITT MAKES A DREAM COME TRUE

It was one the best feel good stories of sport in quite some time.

Turia Pitt achieving a long-held dream of competing in and completing an ironman.

Turia Pitt with coach and former Ironman Bruce Thomas.

Pitt finished her first ironman triathlon in Port Macquarie an hour ahead of her predicted time just five years after suffering burns to 65 per cent of her body in a bushfire.

It took Pitt more than 13 hours to complete the arduous 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run race.

Smiles all around. Turia Pitt finishes the gruelling ironman.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she said.

“I don’t have to do anything else any more.”

KICKING UP THEIR HEELS

Beach volleyballers Nicole Laird and Mariafe Artacho del Solar are certainly on a roll.

The pair have won their third Asian title in four outings with a straight sets win in the Tuan Chau Ha Long Open in Vietnam.

Nicole Laird and Mariafe Artacho del Solar are hoping to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

Laird and del Solar beat New Zealand’s Julia Tilley and Alice Bain for he title which follows on from victories in Thailand and Indonesia.

Laird and del Solar are the reigning World U23 Champions and will attempt to qualify for this year’s Olympics when they contest the Asian Olympic qualifiers in Cairns in June

RECORDS GALORE FOR TRIATHLETE

Former world No. 1 triathlete Annabel Luxford claimed the Busselton 70.3 race in record time in Western Australia. on the weekend

The former Olympic distance racer set a new mark of 4:12:34 in the half ironman on Sunday and also briefly a new swim record of 23.59, later broken by an age grouper.

The win came just three weeks after her victory in the South African ironman.

Annabel Luxford has set a new course record.

“Backing up three weeks following an Ironman — I’ve never done that before, so I was glad to get around and feel okay,” Luxford said.

Multiple Hawaii ironman champion and two-time world 70.3 titleholder Craig Alexander broke the course record in his event with his time of 3:42:59.

PERRY CONQUERS THE ROAD

​Kate Perry (Specialized Women’s Racing) won the Mersey Valley Tour in horrendous conditions in Tasmania on Sunday.

Perry finished the final stage in fourth place to secure the tour honours.

“This is my first overall win of the Subaru National Road Series,” Perry said.

“I was hoping to do well, but you never really know. I was fortunate to have a very strong team help me grab my first win — I think I am still in shock.”

​GILMORE’S NEW PASSION

Six-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore has joined the Australian Rhino Project which aims to bring an “insurance population” of the animals here to prevent extinction after a record 1400 rhinoceroses were killed for their horns last year

World champion surfer Stephanie Gilmore in South Africa for the Australian Rhino Project. Pic: Kirstin Scholtz.

“It is heartbreaking to know that they are being poached purely for their horn,” Gilmore told Sydney Confidential’s Jonathan Moran.

The Australian Rhino Project aims to bring 80 of the animals to Australia but must raise $60,000 for each one.

​FIREBIRDS EXTEND RECORD

The Firebirds are the only undefeated Australian team renaming in the ANZ championship after they downed the NSW Swifts in round o five on the weekend.

In fact the Firebirds and Vixens where the only Australian teams to taste success on the weekend.

Both the West Coast Fever and Adelaide Thunderbirds went down to NZ sides.

It was an unexpected result from Fever who are tipped to press for the ANZ crown this season.

Caitlin Thwaites and Laura Geitz in the Swifts v Firebirds clash.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

FROM a coma to the Rio Olympics? From having to learn to walk and talk again to sailing in her first ever Games? READ MORE

AS a teenager and deciding what path she wanted to take in life in the late 2000s, Amy Perrett was like most young people and craved some freedom and a ‘regular’ social life. READ MORE

ANZ Championship netball Rd 5: Firebirds extend record with Swifts win, Vixens back, shooter flies high. Netball wrap. READ MORE

WHEN she was a little girl Keala Kennelly was often told she couldn’t surf, let alone master big waves by fellow surfers. READ MORE

WITH the 100 days to go mark now passed we take a look at how the Australian team is looking ahead to Rio and an athlete who is returning after a very long break. READ MORE

NBA star Joe Ingles hopes to march in the Rio Olympics opening ceremony as the proud father of newborn twins.

But he concedes he might just as easily be conducting a frantic dash back to Melbourne to witness their birth. READ MORE

Originally published as Short and Sweet: Supermum heading to Rio, Turia Pitt completes ironman and triathletes, cyclists star