Tsunami could not stop triathletes

BY ALASTAIR STEWART

Tsunami warning or not, the 600 women who spent months preparing for the Kapiti Women's Triathlon were not going to let a rogue wave get in their way on Sunday.

Hundreds of women tackled the triathlon, or swim, run or cycle combinations, in the popular 26-year-old event at Raumati Beach.

Though the event was delayed for an hour due to tsunami warnings after a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile, organiser Evelyn Williamson was determined for it to go ahead.

"It was a risk worth taking and I didn't think the competitors were at any greater risk than they would have been in and that turned out to be the case.

"It was one of those things that obviously you don't plan for but we worked through that situation fairly carefully."

She co-ordinated with Civil Defence and Surf Lifesaving and was given the all-clear shortly after 10am.

From there it was smooth sailing as women tackled the 400 metre swim, 12 kilometre cycle, and 5km walk or run.

Many other women opted for half distance courses, or the duathlon, swim/run or swim/cycle combinations.

The feature event of the day, the full distance triathlon, was won by Wellington's Bex Lintott, who finished with a time of 59min 03sec. Raumati's Alice Forster finished just 20 seconds behind in second place, winning her 16-to-19 age bracket and being the first Kapiti Coaster home.

There were plenty of other special contestants, said Williamson.

Ruth Bly, contesting the swim/run, lost 50 kilograms while training for the event, while 77-year-old Audrey Barry completed the full triathlon  the 13th time she had done so. "She's a veteran in every sense of the word. She's always very enthusiastic and positive. I guess that shows what exercise does for you."

A number of blind women contested, opting for duathlon, except for Penny Gray, who, with the help of her husband in a kayak, successfully completed all three stages. Williamson said she hoped to promote the event to more disabled participants in the future.

After taking over as the head organiser for the first time, Williamson was "absolutely stoked" at how successful it was, particularly considering major changes to redesign the course, moving the finish line to the Marine Gardens and cutting down the length of the prizegiving ceremony. "Anything you do for the first time is never perfect but it was as close to perfect as you can get. There are things we will look at and make changes to but ultimately there was nothing major, it was surprisingly smooth."

- Kapiti Observer