CATS kick off the new year with two broken records

The teams handicapped winners of the January triathlon: second—Misfits (Thomas Jones, Makaila Gordon and Wei Ying Lui); first—Fat Athletes (Jay Egan and Chris Gilbert) and third—Team BJZ (Zane Taylor, Josh Scott and Ben Griffiths). ▪ Contributed

Two records were broken at the Cobar Athletics & Triathlon Squad’s (CATS) first event of the year on January 15.

Bourke competitor Tammy Watson set a new time for the club’s long course completing the 500m swim, 20km cycle and 4km run circuit in a quick time of 1hr 12min 46sec.

The Misfits team also finished the day as new club record holders.

Competing in the short course, Makaila Gordon swam 300m, Thomas Jones cycled 10km and Wei Ying Lui ran the 2km circuit to finish with a red hot time of 37min 43sec.

Anthony Wrigley (who completed the short course) finished the day as the overall handicap winner.

The Fat Athletes team of Chris Gilbert, (who completed the swim and run legs, while and Jay Egan rode), finished second.

Third in the overall handicapped section was the Team Cobar ALP’s trio of Pip O’Donnell (swim), Andy O’Donnell (ride) and Lydia Wells (run).

Team Cobar ALP’s also won the Long Course event while Wrigley claimed first place in the Short Course.

In the teams section, Fat Athletes were the handicapped winners ahead of the Misfits and back in third place was the young Team BJZ (Ben Griffiths, Josh Scott and Zane Taylor).

Chris Powell finished the day with his personal best (PB) time of the season.

He knocked 33 seconds off his previous  time.

Also finishing the day with a new PB was Tanya Gilbert, who was making her return to the sport after the birth of her second child.

Gilbert improved her previous personal best time by five seconds.

CATS club president Zoë Harland said their first event of the year had attracted a great turn out of 21 athletes. It included six new club members as well as some old faces who were making a return to the sport.

The club will tomorrow morning host a senior Australia Day triathlon which is a scratch event.

Prizes will be awarded to the winning male, female and team and also to the runners-up in each section.