On Wednesday, 1st August, St Paul’s had three students participating in the Waikato/BOP Individuals Duathlon Championships held at the Karapiro Domain.

The field for each age group were relatively small, but extremely competitive, with the weather being warm and dry with very little wind.

A duathlon consists of a 2.5 kilometre run, 16 kilometre bike and a further 2.5 kilometre run, all undertaken by the individual. Angus Riordan was consistently up with the leaders throughout the race and finished in third place, gaining a bronze medal in the U16 race. Riley Wills and Toby Finlayson also put in strong performances to finish 6th and 9th respectively in the U14 race.

On Wednesday, 8th August, St Paul’s had five teams participating in the Waikato/BOP Teams Duathlon Championships. This event was held at the Karapiro Domain. Conditions were ideal: mild temperatures, very little wind and no rain. The races consisted of a run leg, followed by a bike leg and then concluded with another run leg. All teams had two competitors: the runner who ran both run legs of 2.5 kilometres and the cyclist who raced 16 kilometres.

In the U14 age group, Ben McGregor competed as the runner and Riley Wills as the cyclist. The team performed very well and finished in fourth place.

In the U16 boys’ race, our team of Brady Terlesk and Angus Riordan placed 5th. In the U16 girls’ race, Amelia Hunt and Holly Rowan-Sanders were unlucky to miss out on a medal, finishing in 4th position.

Our most successful teams on the day, were our two U19 teams: the first team of Spencer Clayton-Greene and Jack Deane who placed 2nd and the second team of Henry Carr and Miah McDonald who finished 3rd.

Congratulation to all of these students. This year’s event had a record number of teams and in what is a very demanding endurance event, the standard of competition was very high. We also would like to thank Mr Robert Aldridge for taking the teams to these events.