Twenty-One years of Women’s Triathlon in the Wakatipu

The Fresh Choice Women’s Bike Run Tri was held for the 21st consecutive year and attracted a large range of sportswomen, as first timers and seasoned triathletes competed side by side.

 

The event held in perfect conditions, with the the high cloud keeping the temperatures slightly cooler at Lake Hayes for the 114 individuals and 16 teams. This number was boosted by a large contingent of women traveling from outside the Wakatipu region.

“The event has been popular amongst local women for more than two decades, and has supported the mantra of a fun and friendly competition for all levels of ability.” says Director Pascale Lorre.

”The opportunity to participate with friends and colleagues in an all-women environment makes it a good entry level event that women enjoy without feeling any intense competitive pressure, be it a triathlon, duathlon or run.”

“The teams category is also a great opportunity for friends or work colleagues to compete together in a relaxed environment.”

The triathlon course started with a 300m swim in near perfect conditions in Lake Hayes followed by a 15km bike ride on the Lake Hayes/Arrowtown road into Speargrass Flat road and return. The 5km run, out and back on the Lake Hayes track bought the competitors back to the finish line at the Lake Hayes pavilion.

The duathlon, the most popular division this year, began with a 1.5km run run on Lake Hayes track towards Queenstown, and this was followed by the 15km biking leg and 5km run to the finish line.

A completely separate event held at the same time was a run around the 8.1km Lake Hayes track.

Every division in the event saw a good increase in numbers with 160 women lined up at the start line on the lake front of Lake Hayes. At the sound of the starter hooter, the different fields went in different directions. The swimmers out around the buoys, the duathletes towards Queenstown on the track, and the runners disappeared towards Arrowtown.

The first back into the arena to transition were the individuals in the triathlon field. This triathlon division was taken out by Jindra Sykorova, from Prague in a time of 55.09. Second place went to Camilla Forss of Australia in 56:33, followed by Sarah Hewson,of Ashburton in 56:43.

Thirty four women competed in the individual open triathlon and ten lined up for the individual veteran triathlon with Lynsey Bullock of Arrowtown taking out the title in 58:33, followed by Beth Wills of Twizel in 59.32, and Jacqueline Brown of Invercargill a close third in 1:00:34.

The open triathlon team’s event was won by Team Jem of the Post Office Cafe Queenstown in 1:00:18 and Emily Flemming, Michi Mori and Janet Slye took the coveted Dan Kelly Trophy home for a year.

Team ANNA of Queenstown, racing in the team veteran triathlon division, won in a time of 1:08:37.

A few competed in the multisport version of the event, where competitors kayak rather than swim in the first leg of the triathlon, and Louise Parker of Queenstown took first place in the open division for the second year in 1:04:28.

The duathlon attracted the biggest field with 66 individuals lining up in the open and veteran categories and a further 14 teams in the teams duathlon.

In the open section the individual honors went to Erika Harris of Queenstown in 56:53, with Karla Dawson second in 58:04 and Gabbie Ernst third in 1:01:49, both from Queenstown.

The individual veteran’s duathlon title was won by Megan Dixon of Invercargill in 56:26, followed by Caroline Lane of Queenstown in 1:01:03.

The veteran team’s section of the duathlon was won by team ‘The last minutes’ of Clyde in 58:40, while Shazam won the open team division in 59:41, and the Quik Sylvan team of Invercargill won the business division in 1:05:40.

In the run section Rachel Kennedy of Queenstown won the overall title in 43:01, while Susan Heal of Alexandra won the veteran division in 1:14:32.

A draw for a Giant mountain bike, donated by Fresh Choice, was held during the prize giving and won by Sarah Harris from Arrowtown, who had competed in the duathlon.

Lorre paid tribute to the ongoing strong support of Fresh Choice and to the main sponsors who supported the event celebrating 'women in sport' in the Southern Lakes.