Race #45

Megan Dalton and Suzanne Clark thrilled the crowd with a sprint finish at the first race of the season.  Dalton had lead the women’s field from the water after the 500 metre swim with Clark in a bunch approximately thirty seconds in arrears.

On the 5 km run to Mission Bay and back Dalton extended her lead on the rest of the field apart from Clark who had closed the gap to 20 or 30 metres as they retumed to St Heliers and came into the sight of the spectators.  When they hit the beach and with the finish line in sight, Clark staged a tremendous sprint to draw up to Dalton’s shoulder.  Dalton responded over the final metres and they hit the finish line side by side.  Both athletes recorded the same time with the judges giving Dalton the victory by the smallest of margins.  Marion Thiel from Germany edged out newcomer Nora Moeke by just 4 seconds for third with Meg Bennett running strongly for fifth place.

The Men’s field started six minutes after the women with gun swimmers Brent Foster, Tim Bowen and John Munro first from the water.  They were followed by a strong men’s line up including established triathletes Brendon Downey, Canadian Frank Clarke and Chris Andrews.  Onto the run and Foster demonstrated that he can run with the best of the New Zealand men and was looking comfortable at the head of the field.  Unfortunately for Foster, Clarke was running not like he came from another country but more like another planet.  Just before the turnaround Clarke took the lead from Foster which he then extended to 30 seconds at the finish clocking a sizzling 15.28 for the 5 km.

Foster didn’t slow down on the way home either, taking a comfortable second.  Andrews showed good early season form to head home Downey for third, while Malcolm McGregor looks to have found some leg speed over the winter months which combined with his always strong swim gave him a creditable fifth place over a classy field.