Melanie Burke

Melanie Burke is an athlete from New Zealand. She has been a national champion or New Zealand representative in rowing, road running, cycling, duathlon and Ironman triathlon.[1]

Burke grew up on a farm in near Whanganui in New Zealand's North Island, and moved to Auckland in 2001.[2] In her early sports career she specialised in rowing, and by the age of 24, she had placed fourth and fifth in the coxless fours at consecutive world championships. She was invited to trial for the 2004 Olympics team, however in the absence of a coxless fours event, she decided to move into athletics and running instead.[1] She ran, and won, a number of marathons before Bike New Zealand approached her to trial as a road cyclist. Burke was immediately successful however as she didn't want to travel overseas for cycling events she changed her focus again, to multisports.[1]

In 2011 Burke competed in the ITU Powerman Long Distance Duathlon World Championships in Switzerland and won the event.[3] In 2012 she competed again, finishing seventh.[4] In 2013 she won the New Zealand national women's duathlon title.[4] In 2014 she competed in the World Ironman Triathlon Championships in Kona, Hawai`i.[1]

In 2015, Burke finished third in Ironman New Zealand and in 2016 finished third in Ironman Australia.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Taylor, Phil (4 October 2014). "Triathlon: Superwoman and Ironman". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Melanie Burke". www.horleys.com. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  3. ↑ "Melanie Burke: NZ World Champion". Totally Tri: New Zealand Triathlon. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  4. 1 2 Union, International Triathlon. "Triathlon.org". Triathlon.org. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
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