Chilling end to multisport season

If the Wanganui Multisport and Triathlon Club members ever needed proof their summer season of events was ending, it was the chilly conditions for yesterday morning's Escape from Kaitoke at Lake Pauri.

As the sequel to the first "Escape" held last summer, the long course version was a 700m swim or 3km kayak of the lake, followed by a 20km bike ride and 5km run for home.

The short course was 400m swim or 1.4km kayak, with a 10km bike and 2.5km run.

Spokeswoman Melina Holmes said the mountain bike and running legs were held over the same course the Wanganui police use annually for their triathlon challenge.

"[The route] took athletes across paddocks and through forest on private farms."

In total, 34 athletes took part in the cold conditions, with the mountain bike leg being particularly challenging as each lap one for the short course competitors and two for the long course athletes had seven fences which had to be navigated over or through.

"Listening to all the athletes at the finish they thoroughly enjoyed the change of scenery and also the challenge the course followed," said Holmes. "The BBQ we had after the race helped to warm them up too."

There was also a duathlon section consisting of the mountain bike and run.

Stalwart Rob Gemmell led the long course race from start to finish, completing it in a time of 1h 17m 57s.

The duathlon long course was won by mountain bike specialist Shane Williams in 1h 6m 3s.

In the short course triathlon, first across the line was Ben Conder in 47min, with Finn Williams taking out the short course duathlon in 36m 6s.

For the teams event, the winners were Team Blair Corey and Thomas in 35mins.

The Escape concludes the club's sixth event season.