48 women a record field in women’s tri

Monday 30: Saturday’s 4th annual Women’s Triathlon, again sponsored by Island Car & Bike Hire, was a resounding success with a record field of 48 women taking part, and a majority tackling the 400m swim, 16km bike and 4km run individually.

The weather threatened to dampen the afternoon with thunderous showers in the morning, but the rain held off for most of the race in the afternoon, though it did come again during the cycle, which made for a cooler run, and could be the reason for the excellent times in the race.

Vanessa Palmer, as expected, took out the race in record time of 51.14. But this was closely contested by Kelly Pick, who despite being 6th out of the water on the swim, and 3rd in from the bike, raced past Jennie George 1km into the 4km run, to take second place, just 48 seconds ahead of Jennie.

Stalwart, top paddler and mum-again Serena Hunter took part and despite coming out of the water in 2nd place, proved she can still hold her own after no bike training to come in 4th place, just 2 minutes after Jennie.

Tamsyn Dearlove nearly upset the ranking, coming in as a non-triathlete after a fabulous swim, seconds after Jennie, to race off into the bike and hold a narrow 4th place lead on the run, before being overtaken by Serena, but still coming in under an hour on her first triathlon and in 5th place!

Last year’s winner Rangi Apera came in next in 6th, with newcomer Rebecca Brown following close behind in 7th. Pauline Atera aka Granny showed everyone she still has it and came in next in 8th place with ever-improving Apii Napa following in 9th place and Bernie Raffe completing the top 10.

First team home was No Idea Team, made up of Maureen Goodwin, Michelle Wood and Kelly Bullivant.

Second team to come home was TC girls from Tereora College with Apii Napa, Sarah Milne and Christine Hunter. Third team home was the Mongoose Golden Mamas made up of Jenny Matheson, Vina Winchester and Ake Hosea-Winterflood.

The day was a huge success with all entrants having tremendous satisfaction at completing the entire race or part of the race, and enjoying every minute of it, especially the end where everyone was awarded a finishers medal and a spot prize.

See you all there for the Rarotonga International Triathlon on May 2, with perhaps a much larger number of local entries now, particularly from the women!

Also remember to come down to Avatiu Wharf this Saturday Apiril 4 for the CI Games triathlon and test event for the Pacific Mini Games in September.

-CITA

Full results and split times, tomorrow’s CINews.