BENDIGO triathlete Shai O'Brien will have one major advantage over her rivals when she represents Victoria at this year's School Sport Australia championships.
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The event featuring the nation's best secondary student competitors will be held in the teenager's home city from April 8-11.
O'Brien, who is in year 12 at Catholic College Bendigo, has been selected to race for Team Vic in the girls 17-19 years event.
This is the third year in a row the teenager has made the state school squad.
Among her team-mates will be Hayley Stanford, from Sacred Heart College Kyneton, who will contest the girls 15-16 years race.
Stanford has made the Victorian team in all four years of her secondary schooling.
The girls, both part of Triathlon Victoria's development program, were chosen based on their best two results from three selection races held since November.
The triathlon championships will be conducted in Kangaroo Flat, with the swim leg to be staged at Crusoe Reservoir and the bike and run legs on paths and roads around the waterway and surrounding bushland reserve.
It will be the second School Sport Australia national event hosted by Bendigo recently, following on from the 12-and-under cricket carnival in December.