The race was hosted by Mandurah Triathlon Club and was held in near perfect conditions, with a calm ocean, very little wind and a bright sunny sky combining to encourage fast times and close racing.

The race was held over the short course distance that features a 300m awim, 15km cycle and 3km run.

The big field of competitors included six people who were competing in a triathlon for the first time and featured an age profile that spanned almost seven decades, with Chaice Kelly-Wilson (aged 9 years) being the youngest competitor to complete the course.

This highlighted the accessibility and appeal of triathlon to competitors of all ages and ability and reflected the age group depth of the Mandurah Triathlon Club membership.

Leigh Willison dominated the race and notched his first win of the season after finishing second in the previous event.

He did so by recording consistently fast times in each of the swim, bike and run legs of the race and was able to win comfortably by 39 seconds from Dave Boyes with Sam Stretch and Darryl Harris a further 1min and 12sec behind.

In an astonishing and notable performance, Mikala Falconer, (aged only 14) recorded the fastest run split of the day (11min 19.2 secs) and in so doing, beat many more experienced, mature and fancied competitors over the line to complete the event in 12th position overall and become the first female to finish.

Not surprisingly Falconer’s run performance was the talk of the event afterwards.

Nathan Lyons (aged 14) once again had a great race to finish in the top 5 and push the leaders, whilst John Reynolds (returning to triathlon after a 10 year break) dusted off and brought an old mountain bike to the race and completed the course in the good time of 59mins 17sec.

Reynolds said he enjoyed the experience and was looking forward to doing more races over the season.

New club members, Nathan Hart and Jenny Pedrana (competing in just their second race), performed very well to improve their times over the distance by 2min 34sec and 3min 28sec respectively.

The next race is the annual Bright Eyes State Interclub Triathlon held at Doddis Beach, Halls Head on Sunday December 13.

This is a long course event comprising of a 750m swim, 22km cycle and 5km run and has representatives of all WA Triathlon Clubs competing for their club.

Anyone interested in entering or watching Mandurah Triathlon Club races can visit the club website www.trimandurah.com to find more details.