Triathlon Summer Series launched

Saturday saw the launch of the 19th Wild Dog Triathlon Club Summer Series, with the first race of the season held at Warragul Leisure Centre and the Burke St precinct.

Near-perfect conditions greeted the competitors, who chose from three race distances offered.

In the long course, Paul Taylor made his presence felt as he opened up a 30m lead over Daniel Hahn and Geoff Williams in the water.

Pam Kiss led the way in the women’s long course and benefitted from the close battle with Glen Mummery in the pool, with whom she shared a lane.

Paul continued to pull away from the field in the cycle leg and with a blistering run finished the course in one hour two minutes and 30 seconds.

Pam’s time was by her own admission ‘below her best’ but still a great effort as the only female to take on the long course event.

The short course event was taken out by Kaylene Chaproniere in a time of 52 minutes and 10 seconds.

Graeme Ferguson surged past his son Mark in a friendly act of family competitiveness to take out the men’s short course event in a time of 54 mins 17 seconds.

There was only one competitor in the fun triathlon this week, with Amanda Vosper returning from injury. Her time of 29 minutes and 35 seconds was respectable and she looks forward to improving that time and moving up through the distances over the season.

The club congratulated members who competed in the Shepparton triathlon festival at the weekend, including Dean Hendrikse, Heidi Gratton and Craig Mc Garrity. Next week’s races start at 5pm on Saturday. Registration and race entries are online or at the clubrooms one hour prior to the event.

Meanwhile, the Wild Dog Triathlon Club will hold a community triathlon on Saturday, December 2.

The event will take place at 5pm from the Warragul Leisure Centre in Burke Street.

If you’d like to get a team together it’s a fun way to get into the sport of triathlon.

The race distance is a 400m swim, 15km bike ride and a 3.6km run. This can be attempted as a relay of three (one person per leg) or as a team of three (three people doing all three legs).

Competitors must be over 13 years of age and race categories include male, female and mixed.

Race entries must be received by Thursday November 30 and can be emailed to president@wildogtriclub.org.au or by phoning 0409 178 624.