A reigning world champion, a sporting gesture and some light-hearted gamesmanship made for an entertaining first race of the season for Launceston Triathlon Club.
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Beauty Point played host to the event which attracted some world-class competitors including under-23 world champ Jake Birtwhistle, Rio Paralympian Kate Doughty and Tour de France cyclist Wes Sulzberger.
Keen to test himself, Birtwhistle gave the rest of the field a 400-metre head start in the opening swim leg.
However, similarly keen to keep the young gun on his toes, training partner Trent Hadley assembled a powerful team which ultimately proved the only rivals Birtwhistle could not reel in.
Hadley’s son Zane contested the swim leg before state representative cyclist Isaac Probert and Point to Pinnacle champion Kate Pedley brought the team home.
Birtwhistle was next across the line having worked his way through the rest of the field.
“I actually thought he would get closer to us,” said team manager Hadley.
“He would have had a long run by himself so we thought we’d put this team in and give him a chase.
“As it turned out he wasn’t good enough to beat for a 13-year-old swimmer, part-time bike rider and middle-aged runner!”
Club secretary and race director Bruce Smith said the friendly rivalry made for some fun competition.
“I understand Trent put the team together to try and beat Jake but it was all done in good fun,” he said.
“Jake was very sportsmanlike to give the whole field a significant head start of about five minutes and still came through to win.
“He is a machine and it is wonderful that that these world-class athletes could come and join in and mingle with the other competitors. It was all very inspirational.”
A day after contesting the women’s only event, Doughty backed up by winning the female individual category.
“It was a fairly comfortable win but she was pushed by some of the local girls and showed her class in the last leg,” Smith said.
The male and female junior races were won by Alex Grove and Ella Boxall respectively while the veterans’ events were claimed by Ella’s father Rodney and Melanie Hill. The masters titles were claimed by Jim Finlay and 70-year-old Bridport stalwart Sue Oates.
A novice super sprint was won by Evan Ling and Heidi Edminston while more than a dozen youngsters took part in a tri-stars event which included a swim and run.
“The whole thing went really well,” Smith added.
“The women’s only event on Saturday was really well received and it appeared from the numbers that a lot of girls backed up by taking part on Sunday as well.”