Devonport, 14 March 2026. The finish tape, one year after silver.
One year after taking silver in Devonport, Zahn Spies returned to the Oceania Junior Championships and changed the colour of the medal. The race reached T2 with a crowded lead group. The title was won through the run that followed.
Devonport, one year later
Zahn Spies returned to Devonport carrying the memory of silver from the 2025 Oceania Junior Championships. On 14 March 2026, the same event became the setting for the next step: the junior men's continental title.
Devonport is not a race that gives much away. A 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run are compressed into a course where the front group can remain crowded and the result can turn on one clean transition or one committed kilometre.
A front pack into T2
Close to twenty athletes reached the second transition in the leading group. That meant the bike had not created a safe margin for anyone. The championship would be decided by who could change discipline fastest, establish rhythm first and hold pace when the opening run surge began to bite.
Spies made the right race simple. He did not wait for a sprint. He ran 15:01 for the 5km and progressively separated himself from the group.
From silver to gold
Spies finished in 55:55, sixteen seconds clear of Kyle Mason, with Caleb Wagener taking bronze for New Zealand. The result upgraded the previous year's silver to gold and confirmed the progression that had been building through national racing and a first world championship season.
The following day he also contributed to Australia's junior mixed relay victory, turning the weekend into more than one individual result.
Why this story belongs in the Journal
Junior results matter because they show the work before an athlete becomes familiar to a wider audience. A clean athlete archive lets THRONE document that progression over time: the first selection, the first podium, the first continental title and the lessons between them.
Devonport was not the final chapter for Zahn Spies. It was the point where a result he had been chasing became real.
Meet more of the people shaping THRONE on our Athletes page.