The always popular Cook Islands Triathlon Association BSP Women’s Triathlon took place on Saturday afternoon with a much smaller field that usual.

Association president Roland Neururer said red flags and caution tape could be seen at houses all around the route “reminding us that a number of our competitors could unfortunately not join the fun and the competition this year”.

However, those that were able to make it had an excellent afternoon – conditions were near perfect, with a calm lagoon for the swim, a manageable amount of wind on the bike, and overcast cloudy skies on the run.

This made for a fast effort by some of the ladies, said Neururer.

First out of the water on the swim was young star, 14-year-old Maya Postrzygacz in a very quick time of 7:13 minutes followed by her mum Adrianna Skurosz in 7:42.

Next came two more very strong and talented youngsters who had battled each other throughout the 400-metre swim, Olivia Postrzygacz, 12, and Nikita McDonald,10, in 8:47 and 8:50, respectively. 

Onto the bike and the strength of the seasoned ladies showed through, Adrianna overtook Maya to lead the field, chased down by Lucy McDonald who recorded the fastest bike split of the day completing the 16km in 29:21 minutes.

Tarina Moorfield fresh from competing in the Aitutaki half marathon earlier in the week also made up ground passing the younger athletes to bring her up into third spot after the bike leg.

Strength on the run was what won the day, Adrianna stayed ahead to storm home in a time of 57:13 for a very well-deserved win, her third successive victory in this event.

Daughter Maya was displaying amazing talent and powered through the run barefoot, making up two places and recorded the fastest overall run in 17:21 to take second place honours.

Lucy McDonald dug deep to stay ahead of Tarina Moorfield to scoop third place, her sixth year on the podium. Moorfield finished in fourth with a great time of 1:02 hour.

Olivia stayed strong on her cycle and run to come in fifth place in 1:13 hour and Nikita’s determination was evident as she kept on running to finish in sixth in a time of 1:16 hour.

Lauren Turner had a super afternoon finishing her first ever women’s tri event in a time of 1:18 hr and Sonia Sherborne, a lovely visitor to Rarotonga who heard about the triathlon also competed and finished up the event in 1:24 hr. There is always a special camaraderie to enter a triathlon as a team and this year was no exception with our hugely popular team Flex Beasts made up of Tere Carr (swim), Liana Scott (bike) and Krissy Lewis (run) taking home the team title in a great time of 1:09 hr.

The Cook Islands Triathlon Association would like to thank their sponsors BSP and The Bond Store for their generosity and wonderful prizes, the Raina family for the use of the land, and of course all the volunteers and marshals for their time and assistance, you are all so much appreciated.

The next event on the calendar is the Air New Zealand Rarotonga Triathlon on April 30. Locals are encouraged to please let Neururer or any of the committee know if you would like to enter as an individual or a team as planning and preparation is well underway. The distances for this event will be 1500m swim, 41k bike and 10k run. Teams can be made up of two or three people. More information can be found on the website www.rarotri.com