Luke McCarron continued his African race block over the weekend, with 7th place in the 2026 Africa Triathlon Premium Cup Mossel Bay.
The Olympic Distance event featured an Aussie Exit on the two lap swim course, before a fast 6.5 lap 40km bike course. The 10km run course saw two dead turns across the 4 lap 2.5km course.
McCarron exited the water a minute down on the race leader, however produced a strong bike split and solid run to move back up through the field and finish in 7th place overall.
You can find the full race results HERE.
In a recent guest post with Triathlon Ireland, McCarron stated his dream is to compete for Ireland in the LA 2028 Olympic Games. This African race block has taken place with the simple aim of improving his world ranking ahead of the Olympic qualification window opening in May.
Olympic qualification opens in May and will run for two years ahead of the LA2028 Olympic Games. The qualification process can be quite complicated but essentially an athlete’s 12 best races contribute to their ranking, and they need to be ranked inside the top 55 athletes to qualify for the Games. Outside of being in the top 55 athletes to qualify, an athlete can chase a “New Flag” qualification spot. To achieve this, they must be the top ranked athlete in their continent whose country has not qualified an athlete.
While many athletes have not begun their race season to date, a better World Ranking can help athletes enter events with higher points available. McCarron started his season ranked 196th in the World Rankings and has since climbed to 150th.
