ELITE off-road triathlete Ben Allen from New South Wales, has won X–Adventure Dunsborough for the second year in a row.
The race was held on Sunday, consisted of a 1500m ocean swim, 12km coast and trail run and a 22km mountain bike.
Race conditions were perfect as Allen led from the start and then really pulled away from his nearest rivals in the coastal run to finish nearly nine minutes ahead of second placed Balinga Pasco and third placed Brendon Dimmer.
“Guy Crawford and the rest of the competitors really pushed me to the limit. I worked hard in all three disciplines and I really enjoyed it out there today,” Allen said.
“I worked hard in all three disciplines and I really enjoyed it out there.
“I loved coming back and am very happy to defend my title this year.
“I love Dunsborough, it’s so beautiful here, and this event is the pinnacle of off-road triathlon in Australia so yes, I’ll definitely be back in 2016.”
In the women’s event, crowd favourite Jessica Reynolds from Dunsborough stole the lead in the mountain bike leg to win by nearly five minutes.
“I’ve been dreaming about this course for about the last 12 weeks,” she said.
“I know every single inch of it and it was perfect conditions today.
“I just love adventure racing - the physicality of it and being outdoors – and I love Dunsborough.”
Conditions weren’t so good for the lead up races on Saturday with intermittent heavy rains and strong wind in the morning.
However this didn’t deter the extremely enthusiastic competitors and equally excited supporters.
In the X-Adventure Short Course on Saturday Rowan Brown proved too strong in the men’s event, with Sarah Feldman won the women’s category.
The Short Course involved a 700m ocean swim, 6km coast and trail run and 12km mountain bike.
Feldman said she couldn’t believe she had won.
Vasse competitor Paula Tompkin said the event was the hardest thing she had ever done.
More than 300 children aged 9 - 14 years braved the rain to take on the Kids X-Adventure on Saturday afternoon, with a 200m swim, 2.5km trail run and 4km mountain bike.
The overall winner was 13-year-old Alec Davison from Freemantle in a smashing time of 28 minutes, 40 seconds, Alec also won the event last year.
“I’ve improved a lot since last year and it helped to know the course but the event is getting more popular every year and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to win it again; so I’m really happy,” he said.
For the first time this year X-Adventure also included a series of ocean paddling races.
Conditions were testing as paddlers took on one of three courses: 22km, 15km and 8km.
First back across the finish line was Alan Nicholls in the 8km Short Course.
In total there were 1,400 competitors at X-Adventure Dunsborough this year, making it Australia’s biggest off-road triathlon.
Photos by Sophia Clements.
X-Adventure Long Course Results
Overall Male
1. Ben Allen - 2:21:17
2. Balinga Pasco - 2:30:06
3. Brendon Dimmer - 2:30:43
Overall Female
1. Jessica Reynolds – 3:03:38
2. Phip Hughes – 3:08:31
3. Kristen Gadsdon – 3:09:52
Top Teams
· Male: The Mixed Nuts - 2:50:29
· Female: Margaret River Shire Fillies - 3:02:12
· Mixed: Fish and the Busted Connys - 2:55:00
· Junior: Lightning Boltz - 3:07:07
X-Adventure Short Course Results
Overall Male
1. Rowan Brown – 1:22:59
2. Dave Janmaat – 1:28:44
3. Joe Keith – 1:28:45
Overall Female
1. Sarah Feldman – 1:36:41
2. Melanie Rodrigue – 1:42:58
3. Kellie Baldwin – 1:45:54
Overall Teams
· Male: Young and Old – 1:28:02
· Female: Too Old For This – 1:46:51
· Mixed: Les Dunsbos – 1:38:36
· Junior: Team Duo – 1:41:4
Kids X-Adventure Results
· Overall Male Winner: Alec Davison (Under 15) - 0:28:40
· Overall Female Winner – Megan Fowler (Under 15) – 0:40:19
· Overall Winning Team – Move It Or Lose It! (Under 15) – 0:33:06
X-Adventure Paddle Races Results
8km Short Course
· Overall Male Winner: Alan Nicholls – 0:56:52
· Overall Female Winner: Desiree Silva – 1:19:38
15km Medium Course
· Overall Winner: Bernard Hoffman – 1:39:20
22km Long Course
· Overall Male Winner: Mark Lee – 2:01:36
· Overall Female Winner: Kristie Orchard – 2:41:19
