THERE was a time when Candice Falconer and Brigette Evans were rivals on the hockey field each weekend, but on Sunday the pair were supporting each other in a different sporting pursuit.
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They tackled their longest distance triathlon since becoming involved in that sport - the duo conquering the one kilometre swim, 30 kilometre cycle and 10 kilometre run that was the Nepean Triathlon.
"So Brigette, I think her first season was only last year, but she's really started to get into them and we just decided we wanted to do a longer one and decided Nepean sounded good, so that was that," Falconer explained.
"The longest ones we'd done were the Bathurst ones with a 500 swim, a 16 kay ride and a five run. We both wanted to do and Olympic distance one and this was the closest we could find to that distance."
Both Falconer and Evans signed up in February, but as Australia was then impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, they thought their Nepean debut would be put on hold.
That's not what happened, Australia's oldest triathlon still went ahead, but Falconer admitted that anticipated cancellation did impact their preparation.
"We didn't train as much as we could have. Because of COVID we thought everything would be cancelled, but it kept getting closer and closer and it turned out it wasn't," she said.
"We were still swimming once a week and riding and running, but not just as much as we probably should have. We were prepared, but not as much as we could have been, but it was fine."
Fine it certainly was as both easily beat the three hour time target they set themselves. Evans covered the distance in 2:29.08 to be the seventh finisher in the female 30-34 years division, while Falconer was eighth in the 35-39 category as she crossed the line in 2:44.56.
"We were stoked, we kind of thought around the three hour mark but were hoping it would start with a two, even if it was 2:59 we would have been happy with that," Falconer said.
"But Brigette smashed it, she killed it, she did excellent and we were both really, really happy with our results.
"I think we are both keen to give them a go again and keep getting better."
Evans and Falconer were not the only Bathurst triathletes who tackled the Nepean event.
Richard Hobson and his daughter Lucy plus husband and wife Richard and Anna Blackie were also amongst the field on Sunday.
"We didn't all discuss doing it together but what Richard and Anna do is pick an event for the year, something different, and they go and do it," Falconer said. "With everything else getting cancelled and this was looking like going ahead, they decided to do Nepean."
Anna Blackie placed seventh in the 35-39 years female division in 2:36.36 while Richard Blackie was ninth in the 40-44 years men's in 2:19.21.
Lucy Hobson placed third in her 20-24 years female category as she completed the course in a time of 2:05.49. Richard Hobson clocked the fastest cycle leg in his 50-54 years men's category - a 46:53 for the 30km - which helped him to place sixth in his division with a final time of 1:52.32.
