Near perfect conditions greeted us for the first race of the Gatorade & Active Feet Series in Melbourne. Saturday before the race the sun was beating down in Melbourne and athletes were excited that the first race of the Season was about to kick off. 
Numbers were slightly smaller than usual after 55+ athletes raced the Shepparton Half IM the week before, but that didn’t stop a group of them coming down and repaying the favour and supporting their fellow athletes. Thanks guys!
Race morning we didn’t know who was more nervous and excited – Coach Bernadette or her 30+ Beginner Group racing in their first race! Well done to you all and you can read how they all went here.
Overall we had over 90 athletes race in the Gatorade and Active Feet Distances (there was probably more but if you don’t have Tri Alliance is your SuperSprint Profile we don’t have your results!) with a number of podium finishers, big PB’s already from last year and first time sprint athletes amongst them too. Plus there were a few lessons learnt from the race. Well done to everyone on a great first race of the season – we look forward to seeing you all back out racing in a few weeks time!
Crunching the numbers
- 66 athletes raced the Gatorade race, with:
- 5 podium finishers
- 5 4th place getters to just miss podium honors, and
- 24 top 10 place getters overall
- 11 athletes raced Active Feet, with 3 top 3 finishers
- Overall Times: Xavier Flynn on posting the fastest TA male time in 1:02:16 and Coach Amy Hibbert posting the fastest TA female time in 1:09:54
- Swim: Surprise packet Will Pullin with the fastest TA male swim time and young gun Kathryn Siddle with the fastest TA female time
- T1&T2: Xavier Flynn and Mark Skilton taking T1&T2 fastest combined time honours in the males, with Chris Ormston not far behind. And in the females, Brittany Carver flying through and young Emily Hosken second fastest splits.
- Bike: Mark Skilton clocking the fastest male time, with the older generation in Geoff Taylor and Steve Bridges along with Xavier having solid rides also. Amy Hibbert and Brittany Carver shining again with the fastest bike times for the TA girls.
- Run: Xavier, Will, Geoff, and Mark all clocking sub 20min runs, and Amy and Belinda Griffiths our fastest females on the run leg.
The Place Getters
- Geoff Taylor – 1st M55-59
- Harry Spartels – 1st MFirst Timer
- Dale Robinson – 2nd Athena
- Gordon Hassett – 3rd MFirst Timer
- Mary Leahy – 3rd F55-59
- Just missing out in 4th were:
Will Pullin, Brad Campbell, Daniel Fotheringham, Brianna Laugher, Caroline Houston - Not far off the pace for top 10 finishes:
Mark Skilton, Shane McCormack, Kathryn Siddle, Tracey Linguey, jo Stavrou, Amy Hibbert, Steve Bridges, Mark Schrueder, Ben Sullivan, Belinda Griffiths, Carly Marsh, Matthew Collyer, Pam Tunas, Melinda Fisher
Noteable mentions
- Lynne Evans on her come back race post baby!
- Jussie in making the trek from ‘the country’ to also have a hit out with Lynney
- All our first timers in both Active Feet and Gatorade!
- Will Pullin as a surprise packet and finishing 4th in M25-29 on an aluminium roadbike!
- Jo Stavrou and John Giordano on their excitement of finishing her first sprint distance race! Great achievement guys!
Emily Hosken for not giving up even with a race that doesn’t go to plane!- Steve Hollingsworth on his solid bike time and quoting about his recent Retul Bike Fit on his new GIANT Trinity ‘savewd me at least a minute and a half to two minutes on the bike.’ Now that’s what we’re talking about!
- Hendo Zimmett and Andrw Chappo Chapman for making cameo appearances on race day!
- Caroline Houston for keeping her hubby Geoff honest all morning and only going down by 4 minutes. Watch out Geoff! 🙂
- New athlete Jeff Souter in having a very solid race and just finishing outside our top 10 TA athletes amongst some very fast boys.
Thanks goes to…
- Mark Jenkins and his family for manning the BBQ for most of the race and trying to keep pace with very hungry athletes!
- All those who helped set-up and pack down the TA TAJ. It is with your help that we are able to provide athletes with such a great set-up on race days.
- Athletes who came along and supported our Short Course guys – including some of our Long Course athletes repaying the favour!
- The guys from Lakeside Sports Medicine Centre for their hard work pre and post race. Thanks Khahn, Tara & Justin!
CLICK HERE to check out our full team results. And remember – if you are not in our results then you do not have Tri Alliance as your squad name in your SuperSprint Profile – make sure you login and add this to your profile. Full results from the race can be found HERE.
CLICK HERE to view our facebook photo album from the race – and there are plenty!
Next Race: Race 2 Sunday 16 December, Elwood Beach
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