The final event for the season was staged at Doddie's Beach, on Sunday April 13th, beginning at 7:30 a.m. This was the second of the Long Course events for the season, comprising a 750 metre swim, a 22 k cycle leg and finishing with a 5 k run.

This event began in almost perfect conditions as the field of thirty nine competitors began the 750 metre swim. Troy Main exited the water with a narrow 9 second lead over Leigh Willison. Both worked hard on the 22 kilometre bike leg, but Troy was able to stretch his lead out to 32 seconds as he began the 5 kilometre run. The intensity of their efforts didn't wane as they both worked their way through the run, but Troy was able to increase his lead by another 8 seconds, finishing 40 seconds in front of a hard working Leigh Willison, who pushed him all the way. Troy's winning time was 63:31, an improvement of a minute on his previous effort over this distance, and Leigh crossed the line in 64:11, his time almost 2 minutes quicker than his previous best. Consistent Darryl Harris finished in fifth place, slicing a minute from his previous best time over this distance.

The quality of the field was very strong in this race as indicated by the fact that the first seven competitors finished within 6 minutes of eachother. Dave Boyes worked hard to finish in third place in 65:00, with Ryan Wilmott completing it in 66:01.

Carina Costello performed strongly to become the first woman across the line in 75:47, with Sandy Harvey working hard to slice over two minutes from her previous best time, finishing in second place in 82:50. Jo Kelly-Wilson worked her way consistently around the course, slicing a minute each off her previous best ride and run times to finish in third place in the time of 83:25.

Neil Hall showed that he is getting closer to his big race form by slicing 7 minutes from his previous effort over this distance, and Jamie Muir, one of our consistently fitter, faster competitors went 2:48 faster than his previous best time. John Gow attempted this longer version of the race for the first time and his improvement was signalled by the fact that he finished significantly higher in the ranking as the triathletes finished the race.

Ted MacNeal took almost 2 minutes from his previous best time, and Sandy Harvey, Kathryn Hookham and Martin Ball all took a little over 2 minutes from their previous best efforts over this longer distance. Chris Millard finished his season off strongly by slicing 1:20 from his effort in Race 6 and Brent Burton and Nathan Gorr bettered their times by 40 and 30 seconds respectively. It was great to see the younger triathletes having a second go at the short version of the long course; Justin Amos did very well to better his previous time by 2:15 and Nathan Lyons improved upon his previous effort by 20 seconds.

It was an enjoyable race for most of the competitors, although our friend, the north easterly breeze, which has been present at all of our races this season, strengthened from a zephyr at the beginning of the race to a rather more significant breeze by the time the cycle leg began, slowing progress somewhat.

In summary, most would agree that it has been a most enjoyable, successful and progressive season.

Busselton, the A.G.M., the wind-up and the 20th anniversary remain as we look ahead to the beginning of our next season at the end of October.