Richards masters Forbes triathlon

Forbes race organiser Nick Turner said they had a good turnout, though if the forecast was a little better they may have had more local entries.

The day featured four categories of triathlons to suit everyone – Super Sprint, a Crocs Challenge, Long Course and Mincrocs

The super sprint included a 250m swim, 10km bike ride and a 2.5km run. The Crocs Challege competitors hit the water for a 750 metre swim, 30km bike ride and 7km run.

The major triathlon was the Long Course, equal to a half Iron man, and consisted a 1.9km swim before a 90km bike ride, finishing with a 21km run.

The Mini-Crocs wrapped up the racing with a 50m swim, 1km bike ride and 250m run. The Minicrocs event was split into an under sevens category and an eight and over category.

Young’s Michael Stallard, who races with the Cowra Tri Club, took out honours in the men’s Long Course with a time of 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Orange’s Jessica Richards took out top honours in the women’s Long Course with a time of 5 hours, 27 minutes and 59 seconds.

This was the first win at Forbes for Stallard, and the third consecutive win in the Long Course for Richards.

The heat of the day had an effect on the times of the competitors across all events, particularly in the running leg according to Turner.

“It was getting quite hot in the late morning. It certainly slowed down the run times,” he said.

Turner said the day was a fantastic success regardless of the weather.

Turner said they were very appreciative of the sponsors, particularly Work Control for providing traffic control  and Bernardi’s for donating drinks and ice cream for the recovery tent.

Event organisers would also like to thank the volunteers from CanAssist and the Lions club for helping around the course.