Clements was competing against New Zealand professional triathlete Clark Ellis who won the race, with Clements second overall in a time of 52 min 46 sec while Roberts was first lady home in 64 min 1 sec, with both of them pleased with their performances.The race was run in reverse order, in that it started with a 5 km run consisting of two laps around the town of Inglewood, followed by a 20 km bike section which, Clements said, was ‘tough, hilly and windy’, then a pool swim.’Clark opened up a 30-second gap on me on the run and although I worked hard on the bike the gap stayed the same.
I hadn’t realised that at the end of the swim we had to get out of the pool and run to the finish area, so even though I kept the same distance in the pool I lost a few seconds at the end,’ he said.Roberts, meanwhile, got into her stride quickly in the run and overtook a lot of the men and improved her overall position on the bike section, then put in a strong swim at the end for first place in the women’s race.Both athletes were pleased with their performances in the warm conditions – it is coming up to summer in the Southern hemisphere – and are continuing to train hard for the main eventwhich takes place on 6 December in Queens Town in South Island, New Zealand.
