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With the fantastic weather spell continuing in the Wakatipu region, just on 250 women gathered at Lake Hayes show ground yesterday for the 15th annual Fresh Choice Southern Lakes Women's Duathlon and Triathlon.
Blue skies and hot sun greeted a race field of 130 individuals and 96 teams. Women travelled from Invercargill, Dunedin, Twizel, Alexandra, and Wanaka regions to take part.
Race Director, Geoff Hunt, was delighted with the interest received for this year's race. "More individuals, and especially more teams of women than ever, are keen to get out and have a go at a triathlon or duathlon and enjoy the all female race environment. There is a great atmosphere out in the field, and the event encourages participation of women at all levels of fitness."
"The introduction of a duathlon last year event also proved a great success with 104 women competing in this division with more than 250 women competing in the triathlon."
Andrea Elvines from Dunedin won the Individual Open Triathlon category in a very fast time of 53 mins 30 secs. Sarah Cole from Queenstown came second in a time of 54 mins 36 secs.
In the popular Veteran Individual category, first to cross the line was the overall winner Andrea Elvines, showing that she is getting faster with age, while the third place getter and second Vet was Philippa Findlay from Wanaka, who finished in 57mins 22 secs. She finished second in this division last year as well.
The teams category is always hotly contested especially in the Business House section where the girls from Back on Track were beaten, after taking the trophy the last two years, by the Naylor Lovelies on the adjusted kayak times. The Naylor Lovelies were second last year but a strong race this year saw them take out this division in a time of 56 minutes and 47 secs.
The Open Team category was won with the 8th fastest time of the day in 56mins 59secs by the Deidre Debbie Georgia team, while the fastest team of the day was the Femme Fatale 3 who finished with a time of 56mins and 05 secs
The duathlon introduced for the first time last year into the long established event proved a huge success again with more than half the individual field opting for the non swimming event. Starting with a 1.5km run the duathletes, teams and individuals arrived in transition at the same time as the swim athletes and were soon out of the new arena transition onto the bikes, before running the same 5km run as the triathlon.
First duathletes home Tania Causer in 52mins and second placed Lisa Schbert in 55mins 51secs showed a clean pair of heels to the other individuals and teams in this field. The closest the teams could get was the Generation Gap team in 57 mins 29secs, with Vet Team FXP second in 1hr 01 mins and 37secs, while the quickest Business House Team was Tessa and Sue finished in 1hr 05 mins and 08 secs.
The duathlon veteran individual was won by Clare Challis in 1hr 32secs
The hot Saturday weather encouraged many of the athletes to enjoy a picnic while the prize giving proceeded with Katherine Switzer 'Marathon Women book going to the fastest time of the day Tania Causer in the Duathlon and the Sarah Ulmer mountain bike spot prize going to no 85 Moira Gaston from Cromwell.
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Southern Traverse Ltd. is a premier international Sport Event Management company. Southern Traverse Ltd. operates and manages elite events around the world, including the Adventure Racing World Championship, the AR World Series and New Zealand's icon adventure race, the Southern Traverse.
Other New Zealand events include The North Face Peak to Peak, TrustPower Adventure Quest, and the Fresh Choice Womens Triathlon.
The Adventure Racing World Series is an international circuit of premiere adventure races representing 8 countries creating a 12-month calendar of professional events around the world and acting as qualifiers for the Adventure Race World Championship to be held Scotland May '07.
SleepMonstrers.com is the official ARWorld Series web site.
Casio Protrek are the official watches of the ARWorld Series
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