SUCCESSFUL DAY OUT: Orange’s Laura Auberson and Melissa Ashton-Garard at the Bathurst Aquatic Centre on Sunday. 021013ctri5
THE Orange Cycle and Triathlon Club has all but won the 2012-13 Central West Inter-Club Series following another strong round at the Bathurst Aquatic Centre on Sunday.
Going into the meet 104 points ahead of Mudgee, Orange put a further 129 points between themselves and their nearest rivals courtesy of a “really consistent” penultimate round effort.
“We’re looking pretty good for it now,” OCTC veteran Dan Benton said.
“We’ve put another 100 points on Mudgee. We were just really consistent. A lot of good points were scored.”
Tristan Harrison was the best placed Piranha, finishing the 2.5km run, 200m swim, 17km bike ride, 200m swim and 2.5km run event second overall behind Bathurst triathlete Nick North in a time of 48 minutes, 24.87 seconds.
Again, the women shone brightest on the day, with Jess Richards (30-39 female) and Laura Auberson (14-19 female) winning their respective categories to earn the maximum 11 points, while Kim Dale (30-39 female) and Steph Harrison (14-19 female) weren’t far behind in second.
Melissa Ashton-Garard was the first female across the line in 53mins 36secs.
Matt Dean performed strongly in the male 30-39 men’s category, while Mick Lockyer has continued to improve in the same category.
Orange now boasts an impressive 903 points after scoring the highest total with 248 out of the Bathurst round.
The home squad finished with the second highest tally, accruing 192 points, while Mudgee, Orange’s only real threat throughout the 2012-13 series, may have waved goodbye to their prospects of the crown after earning 119 points from round four.
Mudgee has a total of 670 points, 233 points adrift of three-time defending champions Orange.
With the final round at Orange’s Lake Canobolas, the 2012-13 title is all but assured to be the Piranhas’ fourth in succession.
Benton praised the efforts of Harrison, the squad’s stand-out performer.
“He led the first two legs, got caught on the bike leg, which is where they tend to catch him, then came home strong for second,” Benton said.
“Tristan had an awesome race.”
The final round of the inter-club series is in Orange on March 3.