Prior to the start of the short-course event at Saturday’s Central West Inter-Club Triathlon Series’ third round at Bathurst, it had been more than 20 years since Orange’s Tim Guy had attempted to complete a triathlon.
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But the way Guy - who is now a professional cyclist with the Ljubljana Gusto Santic team - blazed to victory, it was hard to tell he was essentially a triathlon rookie.
He covered the 2.5-kilometre run, 200-metre swim and 16km cycle that made up the short-course event in 39 minutes and 24 seconds to be crowned the victor, and the margin he won by was just as impressive.
Guy finished three minutes and 42 seconds clear of his nearest male rival, fellow Orange competitor Steve Martin (43:06), while Bathurst’s Ian Glen (43:39) rounded out the podium in third place.
“When I was eight years old I did a couple of mini-tris in Orange, but that was the last time I’d done a full triathlon,” the 29-year-old said after his dominant showing.
“I’d done one or two bike legs in teams, but this is the first time I’ve put it altogether.
“I’m going to have to blame Mark Windsor, he put me in the deep end.
“It’s the start of the year and I thought I’d do something different before heading overseas, something different to start the training off.
“I’m heading back over in April, I have a race in Thailand and from there I go to Europe, Slovenia, and I’ll be there to October-November.”
Though his split for the swim was only the 15th fastest of the male short-course competitors – a 4.22 – it mattered little.
He opened up a lead of 49 seconds on the opening run leg and not surprisingly, powered through the cycle in one of the fastest overall splits of the day, a 22.48.
“The running is not so bad, apart from it just kills the legs afterwards – I get through it alright, but afterwards the legs are dead,” he said.
“But the swim, I just don’t understand how people can go so fast in the swim. I think I lost about six minutes,” he added with a laugh.
Meanwhile Bathurst’s Kirsten Howard was the first female across the line in the short-course race, although it had been “three or four years” since she competed in an Inter-Club round and the change in format required a tactical change, she executed perfectly.
She was first to dive into the pool after a quick transition from the run and though she lost time – as expected – before emerging from the water, Howard was only around a minute off the lead.
On the familiar cycle leg Howard reeled in Orange teenager Sophie Martin, her split of 25.55 helping her to a comfortable win.
Howard clocked 44.57 effort to take the honours over Martin (47.48) and another of Orange’s talented teens in Britanny Boswell (50.31).
“It was good that there was a swim in between because it sort of took the edge off the sun a little bit,” Howard said, referencing the temperature rising to 33 degrees during the race.
“I’ve not done many of these at all, so I was unsure how to play it. Do you go harder at the start to negate your loss in the water? But it was still fun.”
While happy to win, Howard was just as pleased to see how many triathletes from across the region – 153 individuals and nine teams – took part in the Bathurst-hosted round.
“There are so many people here today, it’s so amazing,” she said.
“The sport is just growing and everyone is so encouraging.”
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