Three disqualified in Eves Surfbreaker triathlon

271214aw01bop Start of the Eves Surfbreaker Triathlon 27 December 2014 Picture by Andrew Warner.

The Eves Surfbreaker triathlon ended in controversy this morning with the first three runners home all disqualified.

First past-the-post Sam Osbourne (Rotorua), second placed Todd Cameron (Taupo) and Kyle Smith (Taupo) had led the field all the way from the tricky opening swim leg in a boiling early morning surf off Mount Main Beach.

But when a clearly agitated Cameron Brown made a beeline straight to race organiser Sheryl McLay after he finished in fifth place it was obvious something was up.
What happened was the three leaders sat in behind a van that pulled out in front of them on the bike leg for an illegal advantage.

Osborne quickly owned up to the error and admitted they made a mistake.

"It was a pretty unprofessional thing to do. One of the guys was calling it to go faster. It is not the right thing to do in a race. It is cheating absolutely," he said.

"The options were to slow up and let it go and accept the fact you are having to slow down for a while. It is a little bit disappointing because I like coming back here and have won here before but you can't take it at all. It doesn't feel right crossing the finish line in first knowing that sort of thing happened."

Into the limelight stepped Fynn Thompson, 18, from Cambridge who out sprinted multiple winner Brown for fourth place but was quickly promoted to the winner's circle.

"I was behind them and holding a gap when suddenly it opened up really fast and I wasn't really sure what was happening," Thompson said. "I was pleased with how I went because it was a test race before I compete in the junior Oceania champs in Sydney in two weeks time."

Rebecca Smith (North Shore) finished strongly to take the women's title in 54.41 from Hamilton athletes Mikayla Nielsen (57.30) and Suzanne Landers (1.00.21).

Eves Surfbreaker sprint distance triathlon
(750m swim, 18km bike, 5km run)
Male: Flynn Thompson 49:15 1, Cameron Brown 49.18 2, Kieran McPherson 50:12 3. Female: Rebecca Spence 54:41 1, Mikayla Nielsen 57.30 2, Suzanne Landers 1:00:21 3.
Super sprint all ages (375m swim; 8km cycle; 2.5km run)
Super sprint all ages (375m swim; 8km cycle; 2.5km run)
Male: Nick Wotton 37:47 1, Jamie Shields 40:12 2, Chris Wotten 48:37 3 (all Tauranga)
Female: Hannah Knighton 38:38 1, Kaylee Mudgway 40:33 2 (Tauranga), Abbie Mortimer 43:20 3 (Tauranga)