Kenji Nener

Kenji Nener comes into the 2024 supertri League series off the back of an impressive 15th place finish at the Olympics. 

Kenji grew up in Perth, Western Australia and began to dabble in triathlon aged 13 having grown up playing ball sports such as tennis and football. He realised that he could be good enough to make a career out of the sport if he fully focussed on it and so made the move to Queensland to work with coach Chris Lang and join a training group that contained the likes of Brad Kahlefeldt and Emma Moffatt. It was the making of Kenji and would help him launch a professional career.

But for all the promise, Kenji found himself falling down the pecking order in the Australian system and by 2017 decided he needed to make a change. Having been born to an Australian father and a Japanese mother, Kenji made the decision to switch allegiance and to race for Japan instead. Being part of the Japanese system helped fire Kenji to top ten places in the Asian Games and accelerate his development as an athlete. He was officially representing Japan by the end of 2018 and was given Japanese citizenship in April 2021.

Kenji felt he was about to have a breakthrough race at elite level when in 2020 he came into T2 at Karlovy Vary with Vincent Luis only to see his chances of a podium spot destroyed after an accidental coming together with another athlete.

However, Kenji knew he was on the cusp of a big result and delivered in the colours of Japan at a home Olympics where he finished 14th ahead of many more experienced and celebrated athletes. He was also part of Japan’s Mixed Relay team.

At the 2022 SLT Championship Season, Nener produced some of his greatest performances so far, with four top ten finishes from the five events. Nener finished the 2022 SLT season in sixth place overall, while he also achieved his first Super League podium at SLT’s French debut in Toulouse.

Nener said of this ‘ breakthrough’ performance: “By far this is the best race I’ve had in my career and it makes it so special with such an amazing crowd out in Toulouse…. have been around the marl but I haven’t had the race that has shown I can fight with the world’s best and this was a massive breakthrough for me.”

He was also part of the winning Bahrain Victorious Scorpions squad with his consistent form attracting the attention of Tim Don who considered him a key part of his 2023 Santara Tech Eagles.

In 2023 Kenji’s form improved and at the SLT Championship Series he finished a respectable fifth in Toulouse alongside a 12th in London and an 8th place finish in the Grand Final in NEOM.