Biathlon No. 3 of the Riyadh Triathletes season was held last Friday.
The biathlon consisted of a 500-meter swim followed a three kilometer run consisting of two circuits around a basically rectangular shaped compound. The layout of the course meant that runners would be in sight of each other for the majority of the event, very different to the previous week.
As the day was again going to be very hot, the event was split into just two heats to protect the participants from the mid morning sun. The first heat was for the slower swimmers whose pool times varied so much so that after the transition there was a constant stream of runners on the roads all battling against the ever increasing temperature.
As well as the temperature, the competition was certainly hotting up for the second heat. Alex Carinan produced a very respectable swim result of 08:50 but was relegated into third place by the junior Phoebe Lloyd-Evans (07:16) and the professional Jason Metters (Veteran) who completed the 500m swim in 06:46.
During the run Jason was not able to compete with the speed of Mo Foustok (Open) who completed the run in 10:33, but with Jason just 19 seconds behind him. Antonio Castellanos (Open) finished the run in third place with a time of 11:44. Gary McGregor (Open) and Padraig Cussack (Open) also completed the run in less than 12 minutes. Phoebe Lloyd-Evans, although only a junior recorded a run time of 12:40, giving her second place overall.
The Category B race was a closely fought contest and proved very exciting. Fiona Nicol (Veteran) (10:21) emerged from the swim with a 15 seconds lead over Freda Gocian (Veteran) (10:36) and two minutes and 28 seconds over Liz Laughton (Open) (12:49). With Freda unable to exploit her cycling talent due to the lack of a bike stage in this competition, Liz was able to focus on the run finished first in Category B and a rewarding 9th overall, some two minutes and 36 seconds ahead of second placed Fiona. Freda finished in a well earned third place.
Once again Riyadh Triathletes would like to thank sponsors Carrefour @5 Le Mall for their support during the season.
For more information about the club activities, follow Tri club on Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RiyadhTriathletes, Twitter: @RTriathletes
Results:
Cat A — 1st. Jason Metters (V) 00:17:38, 2nd Mo Foustok (O), 19:56, 3rd. Antonio Castellanos (O) 20:58, 4th Alex Carinan (O) 22:40, 5th Steve Salt (V) 23:26, 6th Wolfgang Grimminger (M) 23:53,
7th Simon Chorlton (V) 23:58, 8th Paul McParland (S) 24:37, 9th Kelvin Hills (M) 24:39, 10th Kaiss Khabir (O) 24:52
Cat B — 1st Liz Laughton (O) 26:03, 2nd Fiona Nicol (V) 26:11, 3rd Freda Grocian (V) 26:48, 4th Johanna Spencer (O) 27:42, 5th Jana Jaruskova (O) 29:12
Junior — 1st Phoebe Lloyd-Evans 19:56. (Phoebe came 2nd overall in the adult category)
Jason wins as expected but Phoebe is the one to watch
