Three Eurocoast Triathlon Club members headed to Canberra for the triathlon festival, and returned home with outstanding results.
This event was held on the northern shore of Lake Burley Griffen, with the transition near the southern end of ANZAC Parade. It was a beautiful day for triathlons, with temps in the low to mid twenties. There were over 1000 competitors, 45% of whom were females. The standard distance (1500m/40km/10km) event doubled as a qualifier for the ITU World Championships to be held on the Gold Coast this September, ensuring a high quality field of 478 competitors.
Stand out athlete was our own Sally Jeffrey. Sally was by far the fastest athlete in her age group, winning in a time of 2:32:09. Sally set the fastest time in each leg of her race, and won by almost 17 minutes, in races where positions are usually determined by seconds. It is expected that Sally will be selected as one of the Australian representatives in September, and will go into the World Championships as one of the favourites.
In the same race, Victor Lendzionowski put in a solid all round performance to finish 4 th out of 26 in his age group with a time of 2:18:58. Vic didn’t have the best of swims, leaving the water in 10 th place and having a slow transition to the bike leg, but slowly made up time during the bike and run leg. Victor could also qualify as an Australian representative at the World Championships.
In the sprint distance (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) Lachlan Brown won his age group and finished 3 rd overall, out of 176 competitors. Lachlan clocked a time of 1:10:45. He lost some time after having to go back to retrieve a bike shoe when it fell off his bike, but managed to overtake his main age group opposition on the run leg. After the disappointment of suffering a mechanical failure on the bike at the Nowra Triathlon, is was a relief for Lachlan to deliver the result he is capable of achieving.
From here, the next race for Eurocoast competitors will be the Husky Long Course weekend on February 16 to 18 th .
The Eurocoast Triathlon Club was formed in 2014, to support triathletes of all standards, up to World Championship level (Yes, we have one of them). All inquiries about the club should be forwarded by email to Club Secretary, Ray Davidson, to aztec@southernphone.com.au
Above: Vic Lendzionowski races towards the finish line.
