HIS build up was hampered by a cold, but Nick North still managed to build on his impressive start to the 2018-19 triathlon season on Sunday.
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North made it two-from-two in the Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club long course events, with those victories adding to his back-to-back triumphs in the Central West Inter Club Triathlon Series.
It is that sort of form which meant even after a week where one swim was all he could manage in training, he still had the fitness level to get the job done on the 500 metres swim, 16 kilometre cycle, 5km run course.
“I’ve been crook all week so I’ve sort of come into this fresh, I’ve done no training, but it was good to blow the cobwebs out,” North said.
“I felt great on the run, I felt shocking on the swim and bike, but I came good on the run which was pleasing, because it is probably my worst leg.
“The bike was actually pretty fast, there was no wind compared to Mudgee [inter club] last week which was a little bit different.”
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The swim leg saw North open up a gap of 17 seconds over his nearest rival – covering the distance in six minutes, 29 seconds – and from that point on his advantage continued to grow.
North clocked a 23:35 on the cycle leg which gave him a buffer of two minutes over the chasing Luke Gillmer as he headed into the run.
While his second lap of the 2.5km course was slighter slower than his first – 9:26 opposed to 10:04 – North still won by a comfortable margin. He stopped the clock at 50:40, with Gillmer (53:10) second and Jack Reen (56:32) third.
While North’s success on Sunday added to his dominant season thus far, he admitted the competition is pushing him.
Gillmer has provided him with good opposition, while emerging talents like Mitch Nelson have also impressed North.
Nelson was second out of the pool behind North on Sunday.
“Luke’s getting faster which doesn’t make it any easier. Mitch, he pushed me in the swim, I just couldn’t drop him. Thank goodness we had a lot of people in the swim, so I was sort of able to lose him there, but he’s racing really good,” North said.