State News

Sunday was truly a red letter day for the club, when a total of 43 competitors - young and old, and individually or as part of a team - turned out for the third race in our triathlon summer series.

This is by far the greatest number of participants the club (including the 'old' club) has ever had for a single triathlon event.

It was wonderful to see so many new faces, both as participants - welcome! - and as vociferous supporters. The atmosphere was great, and it is to be hoped that all our future events can be as well attended.

The weather could not have been better. Cloud cover kept the temperatures quite temperate, and our normal unwelcome visitor - the strong head wind in the back straight - decided to stay away, resulting in a large number of PBs.

29 competitors entered the open event, including 3 of the fairer sex (first timers Lynne Berson and Carole Schlessinger, and Michelle Treisman - who unfortunately had to pull out after the swim leg), one mixed team (Paul Stone's daughter Jacqueline and her husband Scott Falvey), and 12 year old Ricky Schlessinger, who did the full swim and run legs and 4 laps of the bike.

It was another first timer, Michael Rifkin (son of Australian Masters triathlete representative Julian) who left everyone else in his wake with a very fast 7.24 in the swim leg, over a minute to the good of Roy Cohen (also competing in his first race of the season) in 8.42. Next out of the pool was Scott Falvey in 9.03, with a further 4 athletes (headed by Alan Kaplan) breaking the 10 minute mark.

Just after this group, Craig Pager and Jonny Lewis reached the bike transition locked together at 10.12, and they continued their close tussle on the bike, quickly passing all those ahead of them (except Michael Rifkin) with easily the fastest bike legs of the day (27.25 - Jonny and 27.26- Craig). When Craig, Jonny and Michael started their final run leg, there was only one second between them. At this point, Jason Blumberg (in his first race of the year, after the third fastest bike leg of the day - 28.58) was in fourth position, just under a minute behind the three leaders, with Roy Cohen a further half minute back in fifth, with a similar gap to the consistent Alan Kaplan, with Trevor Amoils next, followed by Jake Klein -also in his first race of the year, after a quick 29.57 on the bike.

On the run, Craig and Jonny soon left Michael behind, and it became a race in two. Craig Pager's very fast run leg (22.22, well under 4 minute per km pace) brought him home first in exactly 1 hour (and 3.13 faster than his previous best), exactly half a minute ahead of Jonny Lewis, with nearly a 3 minute gap to a group of three - Roy Cohen in 1.3.25, Jason Blumberg in 1.3.35 and Alan Kaplan in 1.3.48. Jake Klein's solid all round performance saw him finish next in 1.5.03, more than a minute ahead of Michael Rifkin (1.6.30), whose overall time will clearly reduce substantially with a little more work on his running.

Backing up after last weekend's Sydney Triathlon series race 3 at Kurnell, Lynne Berson came home strongly in 1.21.05 to win the battle of the ladies, just over 9 minutes ahead of Carole Schlessinger in 1.30.07, who missed the excitement of seeing husband David and son Ricky finish together on 1.20.40.

Particular congratulations to Eitan Franklin, Gary Aaron, Trevor Amoils, Chad Jankelowitz, Mark Baker, Barry Abkin, Evan Elstein, Adam Gold, Marty Knespal, Stephen Brown and Paul Stone, all of whom achieved big PBs.

In conjunction with our normal event, we also held a 'test' event for junior competitors . This was not widely advertised, and comprised principally the children of members and their friends. Despite its low key status, our junior event, which had 14 younger competitors (12 boys and 2 girls) who competed over a much shorter course (150m swim/6k bike/1.5k run) and started about 30 minutes after their older counterparts, was also a great success, and in the light of the positive feedback received, the club will be looking to hold a similar race at our next event (see below).

In the boys' event, Ben Silbermann with a very fast bike leg and a solid run, came home first in 25.00, two minutes ahead of Jared Goldberg (who had the fastest swim of the day - 3.05), with a further half minute back to Shaun May, whose bike leg let him down somewhat. In the same category was Aaron Elstein, whose fastest run of the day (7.30) saw him finish fifth, just behind Danny Silbermann.

In the girls' event, Zoe Elstein came home in a very respectable 31.11, more than 7 minutes ahead of Jenna Resnick.

Let's try and show that yesterday's fantastic turn out was no fluke, and aim for another great day for our next event on 25 March.

Also, congratulations to two of our members who competed in the Husskisson Half Iron Man last weekend - Vicky Garamy, who finished in 5.22.38 (12th in the 45-49 age group) and Michael Besser (5.54.42 - 10th in the 60+ age group).