Geraldton athletes put in Olympian efforts to close out season as Grant wins battle over Clarkson

The Geraldton Triathlon Club saved their most gruelling challenge for last as they rounded out the season with an Olympic distance grand finale.

The Olympic distance is nearly double the length of the club’s standard long course with a 1500m swim followed by a 41km bike leg and a 10km run.

It is the ultimate test of endurance for local athletes but the men’s category was billed as effectively a two-man race between Gerard Grant and Byron Clarkson.

Grant had come out on top in every event this season and last except for last year’s Olympic event leg in which a powerful swim from Clarkson was too much for him to overcome.

Grant had said he had been working hard on his swim but he still had ground to make up as he exited the water more than two minutes behind Clarkson while a slow transition put him nearly three minutes back.

However, it was a much smaller gap than this time last year and by the end of the cycle leg the two were virtually neck-and-neck heading into the run.

But no one can catch Grant on foot — by far his best of the three disciplines — completing the run in 42mins 43 secs more than seven minutes faster than Clarkson.

He crossed the line in 2hrs 18mins with Clarkson following with 2hrs 25mins and Nathan Svenson third in 2hrs 28mins.

In the women’s event, Emma Jones smashed the field finishing more than 20 minutes ahead of second-placed Deb Gillam.

Jones pulled out a seven-minute gap in the swim and never looked back with the fastest splits of anyone across all three legs finishing ing in 2 hrs 34 mins with Gillam just beating the 3-hour mark by 38 seconds.

Paul Burkinshaw rounded out a stellar year with a win in the extended short course, powering away on the bike leg to take first in 1hr 13 mins with Pual Luxton holding off a late charge from Rohan Trigg to take second.

Deb Carlyon overcame a poor swim to claim top honours for the women’s short course in 1 hour 26mins with Richell Giltrap just 90 seconds behind.

Tennessee Forrester won the enticer course over Jo Marshall by four minutes while Andrew Blackburn took the male short course by nearly five minutes over Rob Graziadelli.