Castellanos tops sixth biathlon of Riyadh triathletes

After a short break, the Riyadh triathletes met again for the last part of the season Friday last week. Riyadh Village Compound hosted the club for the first time for the sixth biathlon this year. The distances of 700m swimming and 6km running offered the fastest swimmers the chance to dominate the event in the largest swimming pool so far in hosting the athletes.
Despite tough weather conditions none of the athletes was daunted and competed in a very enjoyable event. Constant challenges to gain positions gave the spectators great viewing. The club sponsors Carrefour, Power Horse, 2XU, Sport in Life, Nestle Pure Life, Wolfi’s Bike Shop, Saab and Riyadh Palace Hotel as always provided excellent service throughout the season.
The race started with two swimming heats, good battles were seen in both heats with quite a few athletes close to the lead positions. Junior Paul McParland ruled the water with no rival close to his performance. Second out of the water, Czech Petr Popisil, was more than 40 seconds behind. Just a second after was Adam Taylor and 10 seconds later Gerd Muezte. The three of them had raced in a line all the way trying to gain an advantage over one another.
With Junior Paul first into and out of transition the hunt was on. Muezte emerged second from the transition to begin the chase. However, due to staggered starting times in the pool it can it is overall time that counts and not road position. Popisil, with the fastest transition time of all competitors in 34 seconds, was soon close behind and second in the time stakes. Antonio Castellanos, putting in a burst of speed at the start of the run closed the gap to keep the two ahead in sight and start the chase.
With five laps of 1.2 km each to complete the 6 km run faced the participants, the distance did not look much but temperatures were rising fast as the morning was passed. The sun soon reminded the competitors of how an “easy” run can become a serious challenge.
Soon Popisil caught Muetze to share the lead. Close behind was Castellanos, eating up the gap and getting closer as the race progressed. Finally, with the three of them separated by a few meters, the Castellanos took the lead with a relentless pace and increased the gap over the two pursuers for his first victory of the season. Popisil took second place with Muetze completing the top three. Adrian San Juan and local bet Nasser Al-Mutrad finished fourth and fifth respectively, both having very good races.
In Category B, new athlete Katy Taylor won with a great performance. She was second out of the water only bettered by Freda Gocian (15 seconds faster), but was fastest in transition as well as completing the fastest category B running time. She also placed eighth overall. Katerina Holeckova finished second and Jana Jaruskova, still recovering from her completion of Ironman Switzerland, third.
Besides Jaruskova the other club members who successfully completed their first Ironman in Zurich were Muetze, Kristofer Ahlin and Martin Ball.
Results:
Overall: 1st Antonio Castellanos (0:38:31), 2nd Petr Pospisil (0:39:28), 3rd Gerd Mutze (0:40:14), 4th Adrian San Juan (0:42:56), 5th Nasser AlMutrad (0:44:08), 6th Stuart Gillespie (0:44:38), 7th Reiner Gocian (0:45:45), 8th Katy Taylor (0:47:03), 9th Richard O'Leary (0:47:35), 10th Paul McParland (0:47:38)
Category B: 1st Katy Taylor (0:47:03), 2nd Katerina Holeckova (0:50:35), 3rd Jana Jaruskova (0:53:14), 4th Freda Gocian (0:55:24), 5th Emma Gillespie (1:11:16)