The SISS Duathlon Champs were held over the holidays on a very cold, wet, and windy Invercargill day. The belts of hail, thunder and lightning, did not deter our Columba athletes, who all performed superbly in the conditions and came away with some super results.

Columba College continues to be very proud of our MultiSport Athletes, all dedicated to their training and competition, achieving results that deserve celebrating. Despite bitterly cold conditions, the girls competed extremely well, and after their stellar efforts in the deep south achieved some impressive results.    

Melanie Button competed in the U13 Girls Individual race, and came home in 1st place. Well done Melanie!

Caitlin O’Brien, competing in the U19 Open Women's sprint distance placed 1st in her race. What a great result considering this was an Open Women's section. Well done Caitlin! 

As there was no U15 race this year, Kayla Millar (U15) & Anya Rhodes (U14) competed in the U16 Girls Teams event. Seven teams entered and only 2 teams were able to finish in the hail, thunder and lightning. Near the end of the day the weather had worsened and was extremely nasty. Riders were coming off in the hail, some close to being hypothermic.

Kayla and Anya placed 2nd overall and finished 17 minutes ahead of the team who were placed third. This team in third place were brought in off the race with still approximately 6km left to bike and 2.5km to run. This indicates how difficult the conditions really were.

Unfortunately the Columba team of Laura Sammut and Bridgette Sutton (U16) were unable to start the race.

Congratulations to the Columba MultiSport Athletes who participated in the event and competed with pride and passion despite the extremely challenging conditions. We are very proud of you all.