Kaiwaka local Mark Hutchinson produced a quick run to win the annual Mangawhai Sprint Triathlon at the weekend, fending off challenges from two Auckland visitors to take out the event.
Hutchinson finished third last year but was too strong in the final run leg this year, beating Thomas Farr of Glenfield
and Bradley Aldrich of Greenhithe to finish in 52mins:17sec.
This year's event drew another great crowd, with entries slightly up on last year to just under 300 participants. The adults course consisted of a 500m swim or 1.5km kayak, 17km cycle and 5km run. Child and youth events were held over shorter distances.
The event always attracts several entries from Auckland and this year featured Stephen Farrell, the high performance director of Triathlon NZ, who won the Men's 40-years swim in a time of 54m:58s, just under a minute clear of Michael Gowing of Whangarei. Glen Tasker of Auckland was third.
Christine Fraser of Whangarei continues to dominate the Women's 35-years event, having won it last year. This year she headed out Robyn Ackermann also of Whangarei and Elizabeth Thomas from Auckland.
The Ackermanns had a good day as Robyn's daughter Simone produced a fine effort to finish well clear of Anna Bruce from Maungaturoto in the women's under-20 category. Simone was 27th overall in 1h:5m.41s.
A combination called Sparked took team honours this year in the swim event ahead of Amanda Curries MR2. Peter Melling of Warkworth and his team Hi Biscuits Ghost won the Team Kayak in 1h:1m58s ahead of Team Leslie of Kaiwaka and KingPhew of Wellsford.
