RIYADH, 1 August 2003 — An unusually mild morning provided a good setting for the 3rd Duathlon in the MWR/Eskan series. The distance was a 6km run, 30km bike and a 4km run. Tom Hoffman soon showed his competitors a blistering first leg.

However, as with all multidisciplined events it’s the all round performance that wins. Chris Wust soon overtook Hoffman in transition with Rob Ervin, Steve Decato, Neville Koen and Dave Hall all coming in within a minute of the new leader. Fresh from a recent jaunt up Alp D’Huez, Wust also held his own on the bike but was pushed very hard by Ervin and Decato, with both men looking for the top spot. Master Paul McParland came in to transition on his own followed by Charlie Dryden and Kelvin Hills. Dryden soon caught McParland and gave himself some breathing space. The top 3 meanwhile could not better each other on the bike and Wust had the 2nd fastest 4km, behind Hoffman, to take first place. Ervin struggled a little on the 2nd run but had an ample cushion to beat Decato into 3rd. Dryden had an excellent 4km to take 4th place ahead of much faster runners, as did McParland who took 5th. Hoffman posted the fastest run again and a deserved 6th. Dave Hall just held off Neville Koen and Kelvin Hills had a good day to stave off the challenge of Reiner Gocian whose running let him down. Chris Arrowsmith and Paul Tupman did battle further down the order, with Arrowsmith managing to keep Tupman at bay on the second run leg.

Div B. saw K. Malone snatch back the top spot from F. Gocian, although Gocian did well to break the hour on the bike, as the wind increased later in the morning. S. Koen on a mountain bike did a splendid job for a first timer, doing well to tough it out over 2:35:37. Andrew Neal was also on a mountain bike and he finished well too in 2:24:10. Team honors went to runner Lehman and cyclist Smith with a combined time of 2:11:12, Smith competing on a mountain bike. James Garton represented the junior contingent with 1:55:21 for the junior distance. Junior Sami Kasawat did the bike leg only in a credible time of 1:21:31.

Notables: Nick Allan working for DHL completed the whole event in less than 2 hours for a good effort.