New Plymouth's Clark Ellice ran down a valiant Mark Bowstead
to win the Contact Trophy race while Waikato's Mikayla
Nielsen took out the women's event under cloudy skies at
Whangamata today in in the second event of the seven race
Contact Triathlon Series.
Early weather conditions were looking rather ominous over the
popular holiday town, with dark skies and intermittent
showers making for a slippery first lap on the bike leg,
although the sun did make an appearance and quickly dried the
40km bike course and kept temperatures down for the 10km run.
Ellice was racing at the iconic Whangamata event for the
first time and enjoyed his day's work.
"This is such a great event, I reckon this is New Zealand's
equivalent of the famous Escape from Alcatraz race, it has
such history and is so tough. The swim was brutal, there were
some real lulls out there in the water and then some big
swells, you had to work the swells hard and time your moves
but I enjoy the surf, much better I reckon than the flat
water stuff in most races.
"I spent the first part of the bike trying to sort out a few
issues with my bottle system but eventually I wound into my
work. I left a bit of work to do on the run and to be honest
at the first lap on the run when Mark still had a minute on
me I wondered if I would catch him.
"But I showed the benefits of some solid training and have
overcome a calf strain that I had in November and was able to
run fast today, there is nothing like feeling fit and running
fast in the sport of triathlon."
Mikayla Nielsen took out the women's race from Maddy Brunton
with first round winner Rachel Hamill coming home in third
place.
The win for 18-year-old Nielsen was a timely boost as the
athlete prepares for the Australian Youth Olympic Festival
later this month; the former ITU World Elite Junior champion
looked composed throughout.
The day saw a total of close to 600 participants across all
race distances, from the hugely popular and sometimes manic
kids Contact 1:2:1 to the beginners 3:9:3, and the more
established sprint and standard (Trophy) distance events,
including a strong turnout of teams.
The sprint races were taken out by promising young athlete
Tayler Reid (men's) and former world No 1 Sam Warriner
(women's), with Warriner continuing her return to the sport
with family in tow.
Contact Trophy (standard distance)
1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Men
1 Clark Ellice (New Plymouth) 1:55:47
2 Mark Bowstead (Auckland) 1:56:02
3 Hamish Hammond (Greytown) 2:00:19
4 Michael Poole (USA/Auckland) 2:00:49
5 Sam Franklin (Auckland) 2:02:39
Women
1 Mikayla Nielsen (Waikato) 2:13:50
2 Maddy Brunton (Waikato) 2:16:52
3 Rachel Hamill (Waikato) 2:19:49
4 Hannah Lawrence (Auckland) 2:21:59
5 Anna Lorimer (Auckland) 2:22:44
Contact Sprint
750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run
Men
1 Tayler Reid 1:00:28
2 Cameron Todd 1:01:39
3 Alexi Petri 1:02:39
Women
1 Sam Warriner 1:04:41
2 Elise Salt 1:07:35
3 Jaimee Leader 1:08:26
Contact 3:9:3
300m swim, 9km bike, 3km run
Men
1 Adam McArthy 34:13
2 Louis Poot 36:40
3 Jeremy Shaw 36:43
Women
1 Anna Wilkinson 39:49
2 Prue Bolt 41:10
3 Hannah Knighton 42:49
Contact 1:2:1 (Children)
100m swim, 2km bike, 1km run
Boys
1 Oliver Gordon 8:54
2 Josh Marryatt 8:56
3 Jack Laker 9:06
Girls
1 Jemma Cherguit 9:25
2 Ava McKenzie 9:47
3 Emma Leader 9:51
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