Gatorade Race 4 Portarlington Results 16 March 2014

You would be forgiven for thinking it was déjà vu on Sunday for Race 4 of the Gatorade/Active Feet Tri Series in Portarlington. The night before the race there was howling winds, pouring rain and the forecast for the following day was only marginally better. Just as we remember from the same race last year. BUT good news was, the worst of the forecast came through over night, and apart from being a tad chilly and windy, the conditions were relatively ‘good’* compare to what we were expecting.

*NB: By good we mean it didn’t rain. The wind was 30km/hr with gusts up to 50km/hr, so it was tough – but we didn’t get wet! 😉

Enough about the weather – lets get to the race.

Active Feet Mini Distance
The day kicked off early with the Active Feet Race, 300m swim, 10km bike and 3km run. Our small group of athletes covering this distance did super well including those who were doing a triathlon for the first time! Well done to our six athletes who raced. Hard luck story goes to Joel Ferrett who, leading into the race was going to pull out on the run due to an injury, however didn’t even get that far as his luck run out on the hill when he hit a pot hole and copped a flat! Talk about a race that doesn’t go to plan!

Well done team!

• Trisha Ritchens
• Leanne Merrett (first time!)
• Stella Ramadan (first timer!)
• Holly Greguol
• Paul DeMan
• Shaun Power

Gatorade Sprint Distance
This race is always a fantastic one, the distance of 800m swim, 26km ride, 8km run is a step up in distance for a number of athletes new to triathlon and makes for an added challenge. The swim was relatively fast, if you read the current right. After watching the elites get pushed across towards the pier, athletes quickly learnt there was a a nice sweep so starting left and getting pushed with the current was the order of the day.
With the wind up, the bike started fast, however it wasn’t long until athletes were riding into a strong head wind and managing cross winds on the home straight. Strength on the bike prevailed on this course. Onto the scenic run and it was all smiles on the first 4km run out with the slight down hill and awesome tail wind. But that’s where it ended. At the turn around point, many athletes realised it was going to be that much tougher coming home. It was great to see athletes racing smart and tucking in behind other runners for cover pushing all the way to the finishing line.

Crunching the numbers

• 44 Tri Alliance athletes raced the Gatorade Sprint Race, with:
• 6 podium finishers including a second and 3 thirds.
• 3 4th place getters to just miss podium honors, and another
• 9 top 10 place getters overall (including 5 5ths!)
  
• Our male to female ratio was an exact 50/50 split with 22 males and 22 females competing – the girls will be taking over at this rate! 😉

The Place Getters

• 2nd – Sarah Grove – FOpen (1st place pending)
• 2nd Geoff Taylor – M55-59
• 2nd – Kathryn Siddle – F20-24
• 2nd Brianna Laugher – Athena
• 3rd Will Pullin – M30-34
• 3rd – Belinda Griffiths – F35-39
• Just missing out in 4th was Jeremy Critchett, kristine Hopkins (although got podium glory on race day!) :), Pam Tunas,
• Not far off the pace for top 10 finishes:
  Mark Skilton 5th, Barry Gilbertston 5th, Amy Giannotti 5th, Sharyn Cairns 5th, Julia Hebb 5th, Sonia Greguol 6th, Suzie Latta 8th, Jill Sultan 8th, Jessie Waugh 9th.

The fast and furious

• Overall: In the guys, leading from the front, was male open athlete Jeremy Critchett. Will Pullin continued his season on the podium and Mark Skilton is ever so close to podium glory again. Coach Sarah continued her racing season and secured her series win for the fastest female, while fellow Coach Kathryn Siddle had a solid race for podium glory and the fast finishing Amy Giannotti had a great outing also.
• Swim: In rough honest conditions strength in the swim was key with Jeremy Critchett, Will Pullin, John Noel, Mark Skilton and Scott D’Aucourt all leading from the front. In the girls Kathryn was our fastest out of the water again to set her race up.
• Bike:
  Jeremy Critchett held strong on the bike with tough competition, Will dominted, while sporting a new Disc wheel Skilts had a solid bike as did Geoff – both to be second fastest in the age groups respectively. Sarah was chasing after the swim and set the fastest female bike split for the day, and Kathryn had the fastest in her age group. Bel had her best ride to date with 2nd fastest in her age with Sheridan Brown, Amy Giannotti, Jessie Waugh and Kristine Hopkins setting a solid pace also.
• Run: The fastest athletes on two feet were Jeremy Critchett, Will Pullin, Mark Skilton, Sarah Grove, Scott D’Aucourt, Glen Smith, Amy Giannotti and Geoff Taylor all clocking in under 34min. Our Open category athletes Jeremy and Sarah both clocked the 2nd fastest overall male and female run times for the day respectively including elites. And Amy, Geoff, Kristine Hopkins and Sharyn Cairns were all top 3 fastest in their age groups to finish off their races strong.

Noteable mentions

• Our first Timer Sharyn Cairns – a great race to officially become a ‘triathlete!’
• Hard luck story goes to Joel Ferrett and John Robinson for copping flats on the bike and  having to finish their day watching from the sidelines.
• Was great to see husband and wide duo Jessie and Glen back in action, along with Long course athlete Andy Livingstone.
• Some of our newest athletes have seen huge improvements – whether that be times, placings or simply the race distance itself! Well done to Dinaksha (D) Hemachandra, James Tyler, Tutu Ralogaivau, Esther Monks and Nadine Berrange.
• Is always inspiring to watch and cheer the competitors out there giving their everything, even when they are towards the end of the field. Well done to you. You know who you are and you know you are just as inspiring as our athletes on the podium, so keep up the amazing work.

Thanks goes to…

• All our awesome athletes who happily helped SuperSprint in setting up the transition area on Saturday. We didn’t get any reports of racks falling down – so you did a great job! 😉
• All those who helped set-up and pack down the TA TAJ. It is with your help that we are able to provide athletes with such a great set-up on race days. We’ll be looking for new volunteers next race! 
• Tim Watts for the fab race day photos. Click here to view. 
• The guys from Lakeside Sports Medicine Centre for their hard work pre and post race. Thanks guys!

Full Race Results & Pictures
Click here for full race results from the event
Click here for our pictures from the event (coming soon..)
Click here for SuperSprint Picture Gallery from the event

Next Race
Race 5 Gatorade Series StKilda (last race of the series)
Stay tuned for details on a post race BBQ and drinks to celebrate.