Kingsford, Osborne win XTERRA Dunsborough

Samantha Kingsford and Sam Osborne from New Zealand captured the inaugural XTERRA Dunsborough off-road triathlon elite titles in Western Australia on Sunday, April 2, 2023.

It’s the ninth career XTERRA World Tour win for Kingsford, and the 21st for Osborne.

In the women’s elite race Kingsford led from wire-to-wire, posting the fastest swim, bike, and run times to take the tape in 2:52:33.

“Amazing course, it was so much fun,” said Kingsford. “This is a true mountain bike course, I was having so much fun out there, and it feels awesome to come away with my first win of the year here.”

Local favorite Kristen Gardner finished second in 3:05:36, while Kate Bramley worked through a mechanical on the bike to finish in third.

“I’m absolutely elated with my performance today. It’s such a brilliant course with so much single track on the bike, and the run is technical too, it was just beautiful out there today,” said Gardner.

In the men’s chase Osborne was first out of the water, with Allen close behind, and those two put on quite a show racing around the berms, jumps, and kangaroos strewn all over the trails.

“It’s a banger of a race, and a hell of a course, it really rewards somebody who can rail a bike around a corner,” exclaimed Osborne, who got bumped by a kangaroo while riding to make the challenge that much tougher. “Ah, it was alright, it didn’t disrupt me too much.”

Osborne went on to post the best bike and run times and crossed the line in 2:26:20, more than three-minutes ahead of Allen in second. Tyla Windham, in his first XTERRA, finished three minutes back in third.

“This is the sickest XTERRA race on the planet,” exclaimed Allen. “I’ve been coming to race here for eight years so I know what it’s like; and now XTERRA gets to showcase this place to the World and share just how good it is!”

Complete Results / Race Coverage

The race combined a 1.5-kilometer swim through the turquoise waters of Geographe Bay with a two-lap, 28km mountain bike through the flowing singletrack in Meelup Regional Park, and finished with a 10km trail run along the sculptured granite coastline.

In addition to the main event, there was a short course tri, aquathon, and kids' races that attracted more than 1,000 competitors to the coastal town of Dunsborough, including a record field of close-to 400 junior athletes.

Headquartered at the Dunsborough Country Club, the area is renowned for its awe-inspiring landscape that encompasses a vast ocean of beautiful blue water, spectacular coastlines, wildflower lined running tracks, and an extensive network of mountain bike trails.

XTERRA Dunsborough was the third of six stops on the 2023 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour. For elites, there are five prize paying races in the region, highlighted by the $25,000USD on offer at the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship in Taiwan on April 15, which will host the first of seven stops on the all-new XTERRA World Cup where elites will go head to head for their share of $340,000 in prize money.