Rebecca Clarke

Rebecca Clarke is a middle-distance veteran who has also dabbled at full distance on occasion, with numerous top-three finishes to her name.

‘Becs’ turned professional in 2012, entering the ITU European Cup in Geneva before joining the World Triathlon Series in 2014. Unfortunately, she missed out on a 2016 Olympic berth for her native New Zealand. This, coupled with numerous injuries at the time, caused her to step away from the sport for a while.

Towards the end of the 2016 season, Rebecca realised she was not finished with triathlon and began competing once again, this time over longer distances.

In December 2016 she finished fourth at IRONMAN 70.3 Taupo, her favourite event on the calendar, and her motivation for the sport returned.

Since then she has achieved some fine results on the IRONMAN 70.3 circuit including third places at Taupo 2018, Japan 2019 and Western Sydney 2019, and second at Busselton 2019.

‘Becs’ also completed her first two full IRONMAN events in 2019 in New Zealand and Wales, finishing fifth and seventh respectively.

Clarke came initially from a swimming background but wanted a different challenge. She got into triathlon training for fitness reasons at first and did quite well. She then took it more seriously before eventually turning professional.

Rebecca’s most painful experience to date came during the 2019 IRONMAN 70.3 Japan when she crashed towards the end of the bike stage and completed the run with an injury to her hip. But it was the emotional pain of making a mistake and losing a position which hurt her the most.

Some of the best advice Rebecca has received in her career includes “sometimes less is more” and “it’s about who wants in more when everyone is hurting”.