Just nine seconds separated Casey McGraw and Travis Parker at the first race of this year’s TriKauai triathlon series Sunday in Po‘ipu.
McGraw finished the sprint-lenght event with a time of 1:06:26 followed by Parker crossing on McGraw’s heels at 1:06:35 for second place. John Grout filled in the third slot of the leaderboard at 1:10:26, four minutes off the pace.
The triathlon consisted of a 750 meter swim, a 14-mile bicycle ride and a 5K run held at Po‘ipu Beach Park, where more than 200 participants arrived in pre-dawn darkness to prepare for the event, states a TriKauai release.
Of these participants, 80 individuals competed and more than 20 teams made up the field.
Fran McDonald of the Kukui‘ula Outrigger Canoe Club, one of the event hosts, said one of the triathlon teams of note was the team of Tanner McDaniel, 11, and Carolyn Price, 10. McDaniel did the ocean swim and 5K run portions of the event while Price did the bicycle portion.
A separate 5K Fun Run/Walk held at the same time as the triathlon ran along the Po‘ipu oceanfront and was topped by Elizabeth Ponds on a time of 21:04 followed by Steve Decker (21:50) and Aris White (21:55) leading the field of more than 40 runners.
Less than four minutes separated the first through third place finishers for the women participating in the triathlon as Leigh Catherine Hicks stopped the clocks at 1:20:01, followed by Andrea Smith and Lois Lutz.
According to McDonald, www.jtitiming.com has full results for both the triathlon and 5K Fun.
Kukui‘ula Outrigger and Pu‘uwai Canoe clubs hosted the event with sponsorships from Mokulele Airlines, Outrigger Kiahuna Plantation Resort, Kukui‘ula Development Co., Barefoot Winery, Da Life Outdoor Gear, Kaua‘i Springs Water, Living Foods, Jamba Juice, Dolphin Touch Massage, Happy Body Massage, Bikram Yoga/The Yoga House and Kalaheo Yoga.
The next TriKauai event will be in July in conjunction with the Koloa Plantation Days celebration.
Visit the TriKauai Web site at www.TriKauai.com for information and registration for upcoming events.
