The weekend of 20th and 21st February could be described the beginning of rep season for Goulburn Triathlon club members as well as a few other Goulburnites from the multisport arena with more than a dozen athletes attending regional events in Canberra and the snowy mountains.
Saturday saw the staging of the Trex off-road triathlon at Lake Crackenback, an event which tripled as the National Championships and a representative selection event for the upcoming world championships. Aquathon series leaders Kurt Warn, and Olivia Stutchbury were joined by six times Goulburn Triathlon club champion in tackling the standard distance event. This event was a 1500 metre swim in the idyllic Lake Crackenback followed by a 30km Mountain bike ride and a 10km trail run , the latter 2 legs winding their way through the picturesque Thredbo Valley. All three acquitted themselves admirably with Kerry winning Bronze in the 55-60yr age group, Kurt narrowly missed a place in the elite open age group coming in 4th overall. Olivia did herself and the club proud by claiming Bronze in the national Championship in the open elite age-group.
The father and son combo of Ted, Evan and Ryan Goad took on the slightly less demanding but no less difficult sprint distance event (500m/15km/3.3km). They were too good for the field taking out the team’s event by more than 3 minutes.
On Sunday, the same venue staged the Snowy Mountains trail run series and once again the Goulburn contingent impressed. Kelsey Seers continued her growth in the ultra-run world taking third in her age group in the 50kilometre event and an equally impressive 7th female outright. Five other Goulburn runners took on the still daunting half marathon, the 21 kms of varied off road terrain made tougher by the increasing temperature and humidity as the day progressed. Nathan Frazer was the most successful winning the 30-39 yr age group and coming 8th overall, Rod Smith was 4th in the 50-59 yr. age group, Dani Connell, and Mel Goad both claimed 5th in their age groups and Ted Goad 17th after backing up from Saturday’s swim.
Also, on Sunday former triathlete of note Andy Dawes took on the Sri Chinmoy lake swim in Belconnen in the ACT. He was victorious in the over 50 age group and 4th overall in the 2.5km race.
Meanwhile back at home, racing continued Tuesday night with round 15 of the Goulburn Power Centre Aquathon series. The cooler weather saw some reduced numbers across all races, but it was pleasing to see some new names on the leader boards. Bobby Remington, Alexander Skeffington, Annette Pattison, and Conrad Bullock were first time placegetters in their races and were joined by Shannon Apps, Elsie Apps and seventy something Peter Tapp who all recorded wins. Ryan Croker and Llew Davies were unlucky in their races both being relegated to fourth by a small margin.
Results Rd 15
Novice 100m/2km
Ladies: Elsie Apps 1st, Stella McIntyre 2nd, Bobby Remington 3rd
Men: Peter Tapp 1st
Open 1 200m/4km
Ladies: Ava McIntyre 1st, Violet Ottley 2nd
Men: Evan Goad 1st, Jamie Miles 2nd
Open 2 400m/4km
Ladies: Shannon Apps 1st, Mikaela McGrath 2nd, Annette Pattison 3rd
Men: Tom Skeffington 1st, Alexander Skeffington 2nd, Conrad Bullock 3rd
Long Distance 600m/6km
Ladies: Olivia Stutchbury 1st
Men: Kurt Warn 1st, Isaac Hogan 2nd, Kerry Baxter 3rd
Olivia Sutchbury
Kerry Baxter
