NEVIS CYCLE & TRIATHLON CLUB

Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com

CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – REGINALD ‘Reggie’ Douglas was yesterday adjudged the overall winner - Olympic Male Overall - at the Carino Health Spa Triathlon which attracted 128 local, regional and international athletes.

Reggie also successfully defended his OECS Championship title and expressed joy at winning on his home turf. “I am pretty excited. It is so nice to win in my home ground,” Reggie said after romping home to the cheers of a huge crowd of local fans and overseas visitors to Nevis.

Patrice Palmont from Guadeloupe took second spot in the Olympic Male Overall while Jean March Outil from St. Barths captured the third place prize.Commenting on Reggie’s performance, Palmont said in an interview, “Reggie ran parallel with me towards the end but made a sprint in the last 200 metres. He was extremely fast. He had an advantage of being in his own country. He has an added mental advantage on the sprint.”

Other outstanding performances came from Elite Male Francisco Serrano of Mexico (01:50:41), Elite Female Rebecca Wassna of the USA (1:59:32), Olympic Female Overall Janine Herweijer from Holland (02:47:17), Sprint Male Overall Mathew Wright out of Barbados (01:08:57), and Trinidad’s Sprint Female Overall Jacqueline Jodhan (01:29:53).

Athletes came from as far as Japan, and Mariko and Chie, elite athletes from that country enlisted in January 2008 after reading about the sporting event online. They said this would build their ranking in world events.

Debby and Mike sailed from Alaska on their boat Deva since November to be on time for the race. “We were overwhelmed by how the local people cheered us all along the course. This encouragement enabled me to ride 20 kilometres on a flat tyre. About 20 people stopped to ask me if I needed help. We like the people. Nevis is clean and the people are super-friendly. 

We knew we would finish. We have been on our boat for four months. We did not train in those four months, but at home we trained daily,” Debby said.

Vaden Jones, General Manager, Oualie Beach Resort, said, “This will enable all the athletes who participated to come back to Nevis for vacation.” Female winner in the Elite race, Rebecca Wassner from USA, said she would return to Nevis. She said she had used the race to gauge herself: “It was well organised and we will recommend it to everybody. Nevis will be counted for world ranking. It was very well organised.” This year was very special. It was the first time the Elite athletes were participating in the Nevis Triathlon which has already been sanctioned by the World Governing body (ITU) as a Continental Cup event. The Elite athletes are gearing up for the Beijing Olympics.

Local and international athletes described the event as very well organised.  The event’s President, Winston Crook, attributed the success to hard work and experience and the 80 volunteers who worked extremely hard. “The volunteer team was amazing.” Over 24 countries sent participants.

Edris Fellows, a local female participant, said the event was “very balanced.”  Jones from Camps, Nevis said it was much bigger and had more participants, especially pro-elite athletes from all over the world. “It will promote Nevis a lot. Nevis will be known. This year it is unique because it is an ITU event.”

The oldest participant, Dr. Gordon Avery (74) said, “It was the biggest. It is the first time we have the Elite Group.”  James Weekes felt “cool”. He said it was not as tough as he had expected