A number of sporting events went ahead over the weekend despite the predicted heat with the Cobar Athletics & Triathlon Squad’s (CATS) event on Sunday pretty much done and dusted before the mercury rose too high.
A number of athletes also took the option of completing the short course rather than the long course on Sunday which included a gruelling 20km bike ride.
Sunday’s field was also a bit smaller than previous months with just 10 competitors lining up for the short course (300m swim, 10km ride, 2km run) and three individuals for the long course (500m swim, 20km ride and 4km run).
Aaron Davey was the overall handicapped winner, completing the long course in 1hr 12min 55sec which was an improvement of 3min and 21sec on his previous best time.
In her first attempt at the long course, Johanna Strahl finished in a time of 1.23.20 to finish second in the overall handicapped event.
Pip O’Donnell finished the long course in a time of 1.19.02, improving by 32 seconds on her previous best time.
A change of tactics in how she transitioned from the ride to run leg helped Tanya Gilbert to improve her previous best short course time by nearly three minutes and finish third in the overall handicap section.
Gilbert completed the short course on Sunday in 44 minutes 26 seconds. Her previous best time was 47.08.
Trudy Griffiths (usually a long course competitor) set a cracking time of 38.38 in the short course on Sunday to finish second.
Third place in the short course handicap event was another regular long course competitor, Alistair Travis. He had an improved short course time of 38.11. (His previous short course best time time was 39.36.)
The teams event was won by Red Hot with Alex Eves swimming and Chris Freeman completing the ride and run legs. They set a time of 37.46 which was just three seconds off the course record.
Second was The Davey Girls team with Milla Davey completing the swim while mum Nikki did the ride and run legs. They finished with a great time of 48.10.
