Contrino, Gocian triumph to emerge midseason leaders

A grueling duathlon course marked the halfway point in the Riyadh Triathletes season last Friday. The club’s third duathlon at Ranco Farm was a tough route consisting of a five-kilometer run, 30-kilometer cycle and a closing three-kilometer run.
After a delayed start, the runners completed the first kilometer in relative shade from a tree-lined avenue. This was quickly followed by a leg-sapping short climb in full sun which immediately split the pack, allowing the elite runners to break away and progress up the steady climb, before turning back into the valley.
Not surprisingly, one of the club’s fastest competitors, Gaeton Contrino (M –Veteran) was first into transition one with a time of 00:20:01. In second place was Dave Wright (M – Open) at 20:52. Third place, with a time of 21:19, was Antonio Castellanos (M – Open). Scott Waight (M – Veteran) who was lying in fifth place after the five km. run had an extremely fast transition of only 44 seconds, two seconds ahead of Contrino which helped him in later in the race. Unfortunately Castellanos needed to play catch up following a transition one time of four minutes.
Contrino again finished the 30 km in pole position with a time of 45:34.
In second place came club chairman and experienced cyclist Paul Mc Parland (M – Senior) with a time of 48:19. Waight, another experienced cyclist, finished in third place at 48:33. Congratulations to Castellanos who managed to chase down the leading riders to finish the 30 km ride in fifth place at 49:29.
Transition two proved very quick for all 25 finishers with the majority of competitors recording a time of less than one minute.
Castellanos recorded a fast time of 11:33 for the three km run, which enabled him to take first position, with Contrino coming in second at 12:07.
In Category B (Women’s) Freda Gocian (F – Veteran) and Fiona Nichol (F – Veteran) completed the first run in 28:52, with Katerina Holeckova (F – Open) in third in 29:47. Gocian then managed to exit transition one at 00:42, three seconds ahead of Nichol. Gocian’s cycle skills enabled her to pull further ahead and complete the ride in 57:49, with Nichol finishing in second place at 01:00:08 and Holeckova completing in 01:03:25 to take third.
During the final run Gocian completed in 17:53, with Holeckova (19:15) taking second place and Nichol (19:23) in third place.
Riyadh Triathletes would like to thank Carrefour @5 le Mall for its support during this season.
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Results:
Cat A: 1st. Gaeton Contrino (V) 01:19:03, 2nd. Dave Wright (O) 01:25:40, 3rd. Scott Waight (V) 01:26:41, 4th. Antonio Castellanos (O) 01:27:08, 5th. Alex Carinan (O) 01:31:34.
Cat B: 1st. Freda Gocian (V) 01:46:08, 2nd. Fiona Nichol (V) 01:50:00, 3rd. Katerina Holeckova (O) 01:54:21, 4th. Jana Januskova (O) 01:56:32, 5th. Jane White (V) 02:06:49