NEVIS CYCLE & TRIATHLON CLUB

A beautiful but breezy day greeted the members of TNCTC as they met at Oualie Beach for the 2nd race of the winter Triathlon/Duathlon series, this event would be a Duathlon of 1km Run/ 10km Run/ 2km Run.

Competing alongside the junior and senior club members were Brad Tymchuk, new to the MUA and two guests from the Nisbet Plantation Adam Draper and Peter Nisbet (maybe a historical link there?) both visiting from the UK. It was a treat to see some of the bike Cadets joining in, like Andrea Lewis and Divam and Prana Sharma, as this would be the first race for some of them, the whole idea for the Duathlons is to give the none swimming members a chance to compete on event terms, improving their skill sets and having fun at the same time.

The short 1km run headed to the front of Gallipot restuarant for the turnaround, and although only short it was soon evident which athletes had been training and which had not, unsurprisingly it was Reggie first back into transition in a time of 3:50, followed by Alex Isles and then young Juleen Weekes standing in for her injured father James to make up a fun relay team. For the women it was 9 yr old Andrea Lewis who set the pace, with a fine run time of 6:15, in 2nd was Paula Price right at the other end of the age scale, followed by Jen Carter out of St Kitts. The Juniors were being led by newcomer Ishawn Jeffers who posted a 4:36 run to lead Shaun onto the bike, but suffered an early puncture to retire him for the race, bad luck, good effort!.

The 10km bike route was fast and furious, only slightly hampered by a brisk headwind, that seemed to still exist on the return leg as well, mysterious?? and this is where things got really interesting, with the bikers getting into their repective zones to make up time where they could on the faster runners, hoping to get any kind of edge before the final run section.  On the only relay team in the race James Weekes showed everyone a clean pair of wheels posting a very fast 16:32 split before handiing the baton back to his daughter Juleen, Reggie was 2nd and Jr rider Shaun Brear 3rd. Things were certainly heating up in the womens event as well with Jen taking it to Paula on the bike coming into T2 in 24:38 to take the lead going into the last run leg.

After James great bike Juleen led out onto the final 2km run with Reggie 30 seconds back and in hot pursuit, could she hold him off?? and soon all of the competitors were out on the run course, heading up over Hurricane Hill and along Cattle Long Path, turning around to fight back over the hill to finish. In first place once again was the indomitable Reggie, finishing in a fine total time of 30:03 followed byJuleen for Team Weekes Relay Squad, then came Alex Isles who barely held off a hard charging Greg Phillip, beating Greg into 3rd by a mere 2 seconds, great running Mr Phillip!!

The next batch of finishers were the Junior athletes with Shaun Brear taking top Jr spot in a time of 38:06 followecd by Kurtis Huggins and Michael Loncke, in the womens category it was Jen carter in front in a time of 47:59, followed by veteran competitor paula Price, with young Andrea taking 3rd female and top Junior female, wonderful stuff, watchout for her everyone!!

It really was a great day with a nice turnout, congratulations to all of the competitors, with special thanks to Brad, Peter and Adam for joining in the mad melee, thanks also to Collette, Marecia and Brads wife Tanya for the timing.

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.