HE'S been racing in Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club events for eight years, but on Sunday morning Will Kelly enjoyed a first - he posted his maiden long course win.
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Kelly began his association with the club as a junior, being crowned the short course champion for season 2014-15. That same season he was named joint club person of the year.
Kelly then stepped up to seniors to try the short course races and in November 2019, he tackled a long course race of 500 metres swim, 16 kilometre cycle and 5km for the first time.
He's placed in long course events since then, but Sunday marked the first time he'd won.
"That was my first long course win, so I'm pretty happy with that," the 16-year-old said.
"I think I have been doing them since Year 3-4, so I've been racing for eight years. I can't get enough of them really, I've been doing inter clubs as well, that's what I like to do, a bit of competition."
Kelly was first out of the pool in the fourth race of the Wallabies' 2020-21 season, clocking a seven minutes, one second split.
Richard Hobson was not far behind and while the much more experienced triathlete took the lead on the cycle leg, muscle soreness saw him opt to withdraw.
That gave Kelly the lead, but the effort the teenager produced on the bike meant he had not actually conceded too much time to Hobson before he withdrew.
Kelly covered the 16km cycle in a time of 25:31 - in comparison his round one split was 29:41 and round two effort was a 27:26.
He then sealed victory with a 21:09 run, his final time a 54:50. Second place belonged to Tim Miller (1:00.21) with Darren Fenton third (1:00.50).
"I don't think I've ever really ridden that quick before so I was really happy, it was a bloody good ride for me," Kelly said.
"I've been putting in a bit more training for the bike ride and that has paid off and I've been doing a bit more running, so that has probably helped as well with the legs. I was extremely happy with that run too.
"The swim is always my strong leg and it felt good today, I was happy with that effort."
Kelly is now training with Hobson and he hopes the improvements in time continue to come.
"I just started training with Richard Hobson, so that's been really good. With Hobbo and them, I look at them and think 'I hope I can race that fast one day'," he said.
Short course winner Mark Windsor was amongst those to praise Kelly for his winning effort in Sunday's long course race.
"I'm glad to be here and see that with Will because he's been here the whole time. I remember him as a little kid mucking around with a bike waiting for the senior event to start," he said.
"To see him win his first long, that's terrific."
In the women's long course event it was Pip Press who took the honours in 1:16.41 ahead of Barb Hill (1:18.41) and Anna Blackie (1:18.59). As was the case with Kelly, Press' cycle leg (32.29) set up the win.
