Doing as they please in casual triathlon

Twenty-nine hardy athletes gathered at the Avarua harbour for the weekends triathlon which had been moved to town while the Matenga family held an unveiling at the cemetery next to the usual tri-site in Titikaveka.

Of the group nine athletes tackled the 200m swim, 16km cycle and 4km run together while everyone else did as they pleased combining either a swim and run or a run and bike or just completing the run leg alone.

Tereora College physical education teacher Vanessa Palmer and veteran racer Geoff Stoddart were the fastest athletes of the afternoon both clocking a time of 52:20 although Palmer was first out of the water in 2:25 while Stoddart had a swim time of 3:33.

Stoddart caught up to Palmer on the cycle leg, his strongest discipline, before the pair both finished the run in 19:23.

Remaining athletes cruised out of the water chatting and talking about the weather before hitting the bikes or the road depending on what theyd decided to do for the afternoon.

New faces were also a feature of the triathlon with a number of other national athletes using the multisport event to shape up for the busy year of sports ahead.

Triathlons are held every Saturday and on Thursdays the double discipline duathlon is run from Panama in Nikao.