Words: Damian Bradley
Yesterdays penultimate TinMan drew another big triathlon field. Athletes were greeted with another beautiful Durban summers day, with a moderate northeaster. Over 350 runners and Triathletes racked their bikes and registered for the 3rd event in the popular TinMan Triathlon Series. The Indian ocean was bumpy from the constant NE wind, which had blown for 3 days and resulted in the Mini Tri and the Sprint Tri swim legs being cancelled. The call was hard to make, but with the sea conditions deteriorating by the minute, it was the right call.
The Mini and Sprint races started with a short beach run up into transition and then onto the 5km cycle course around the Durban Country Club. The Challenge triathlon took to the water for a shortened 500m swim course, although shortened, even the toughest swimmers batted in the bumpy seas, but all Challenge athletes made it safely out and onto the 6 lap bike course. The wind on the bike made for a challenging ride for all events, with tight groups forming on the draft legal bike course.
The 10km running race drew its biggest field yet, with over 74 runners on the starting line. The 2 lap running route along Durban's golden Mile is fast and flat and the fit runners dashed away from Suncoast to the first turn around point at Blue lagoon. The two water tables on the running route kept the runners well hydrated as the temperature rose during the event. Adam Lipschitz won the men's event in a time of 33min 51sec with Shani Silver winning the ladies race in a time of 40min 33sec. In the Mini triathlon, James haw won the boys race with Tegan Gore winning the ladies race only 52 seconds behind James. The Sprint race had a battle infront between SIBONGISENI ZONDI and RAYMOND RADEBE, Sibongiseni manage to dash ahead and win by just 2 seconds in a hard fought 5km run. Kim Watchurst took the ladies line honors just 3min behind the men's sprint winners, with Kate Klelland and Mikaela Johnson claiming second and third.
In the Challenge race, The tough swim conditions mixed it up for allot of the athletes with event top swimmer Glen Gore saying that it was the toughest swim he has done in the TinMan series. With the wind building, groups formed on the 30km bike route, with Gore, Venter, Di Dominicus, Geldenhuys and Gibb all working hard to keep off the chase pack. Of the bike and onto the run Gore, Venter managed to get a small break and pushed each other hard to try see who would break first. At the 5km turn point, Gore was just ahead of venter, but not far enough to secure his lead. Gore pushed ahead on the 2nd 5km and managed to hold off a strong chase from venter to win the Challenge race just 1min ahead of Venter. Johnny Di Dominicus claimed 3rd place fighting off a tough chase from Geldenhuys and Gibb. The ladies Challenge event saw Hayley Mee racing hard and claiming the top ladies spot , a solid 7min ahead of Ashleigh Hansen, with Kara Human rounding off the podium.
The final race in the 2015 TinMan Series takes place at Suncoast on the 15th of November, just 3 weeks away. The first 200 Sprint and Challenge entries get a free race T-shirt as well as a free Race Belt, so don't delay!
Entries are open, so don't miss out on the exciting final event, go to www.bactiventry.com to enter.
