THE sun was shining and the air was a pleasant 24 degrees for the nearly 350 competitors that were lined up on First Beach for the Cape Paterson Aquathon on Sunday morning.
Green, orange and yellow caps started the 400-metre swim leg with a few minutes lag between each group.
Swimmers then headed up the stairs to the transition area before completing a 4.4 kilometre run through the Cape Paterson headland, down to the eco village and back to the Cape Paterson Surf Life Saving carpark.
First through the posts and coming third overall was Inverloch local Tynan Bressan who has been involved for a couple of years now and was happy with his performance, being about a minute faster than last year with a time of 24:45.4 minutes.
“The swim leg was fantastic. I didn’t know I had that in me. And I wanted to sit at four minutes pace for the run but I found myself well below that and I was cruising, so I just tried to hold on until the end,” said Tynan.
“I was spectacularly impressed with my run last year and backed it up again this year.”
Tynan commented that he plays football and swims in preparation each year for the Lorne Pier to Pub which paid off for him in this year’s aquathon.
Coming in first place for the males with a time of 23:23.4 minutes was Justin Tilley, second place was Mark Rowe with a time of 24:35.1 minutes.
Coming in fourth place overall and in first place for the females was Alice Baquie with a time of 25:20.3 minutes.
About 30 family and friends from Cape Paterson cheered Alice as she came fluidly through the finish line.
Alice both surfs and swims, however, comments that the swim was the weaker leg of the race for her, and running regularly, 10 kilometres, four times a week got her successfully over the finish line in an impressive time.
Competing in the aquathon when she was 18 years old, Alice has been back many times over the past 20 years to participate.
“It’s almost like I get nervous from these sort of local events because there’s so much family involved,” Alice laughed.
“It’s got a really special place for me.
“Every time I come back it gets bigger and bigger and better and it’s so nice to see it’s a well-oiled machine because the logistics of it must be really difficult.”
