Kelly Pick stars in NZ tri

Gun multisporter Kelly Pick is the toast of the Cook Islands Triathlon Association after winning her age division (25-29) in the recent Port of Tauranga Half-Ironman Triathlon.

The Muri resident not only trained hard to clean up her age division but she also out-muscled numerous elite female triathletes to take out 11th place overall in a field of nearly 800 female contestants.

Pick was part of a small delegation of local athletes including Geoff Stodart, Richard Vinsen, Richard Baltrop and Roland Neururer who took part in the half ironman triathlon on January 9.

Pick swam the 2km swim leg in 37:10 emerging out of the water in 33rd place and made great gains in the 90km cycle leg pulling back 10 cyclists to finish the leg in 23rd place in a great time of 2:33:51.

Pick then showed her real strength in the run leg pounding the 21km course in a cracking 1:30:49 to take out her age division and place 11th overall with a time of 4:43:28.

Overall female winner Sam Warriner of Whangarei completed the half-ironman triathlon course in 4:17:04.

Geoff Stoddart raced in the men’s 50-54 age division placing 6th in the division and 103 overall out of 801 male athletes with a time of 4:48:13.

Roland Neururer placed 10th in the men’s 45-49 age division with a time of 4:52:23 to place 126 overall.

Richard Vinsen also achieved a top 10 placing coming 8th in the men’s 55-59 division in a time of 5:37:15 to place 324 overall.

Richard Baltrop finished 352 overall, finishing his race in the men’s 40-44 age division in position 68 with a total time of 5:46:09.

But it wasn’t just an all-male Cook Islands effort, thanks to a team calling themselves Raro Chicks comprising Karyn Vinsen, Michelle Wood and Debbie Moore. With Vinsen’s swim time of 47:30, Wood’s bike time of 3:23:42 and Moore’s run time of 2:29:44, the Chicks posted a combined time of 7:07:53 to finish 28th out of 29 women’s teams.

Congratulations to the local triathletes for outstanding performances in a gruelling race.