SHE was one of the youngest competitors in Sunday's women's only triathlon, but Milla Nelson was also one of the most experienced and one of the fastest.
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The 13-year-old managed to place fourth outright in the fourth edition of the Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club's women's only event, covering the 200 metres swim, 16 kilometre cycle and 2.5km run course in 49 minutes, 32 seconds.
It was a strong swim leg that laid the foundation of her impressive showing - her split of 3:06 the second fastest of all the competitors.
It's not the first time she has impressed in the pool either, Nelson frequently amongst the leading group to emerge from the opening leg in Bathurst Wallabies events.
"That's my best leg, yeah, I used to do a lot of swimming and still do a bit now. My run is not my strongest point," she said.
Though the women's race adopted a slightly different format to regular club rounds - for example the swim course was an 'M' shape - Nelson is certainly familiar with the swim, cycle, run challenge.
"I've been doing triathlon since Boomers, when I was about five or six and I've just been doing them ever since then," she said.
"All my brothers did them as well, Mitch, Todd and my twin brother Lachie, but he doesn't do them anymore.
"I love triathlon. Triathlon is a really good sport, it's a lot of fun getting out there."
Nelson was in the first wave of competitors who took part in Sunday's event.
She began well with the swim and was actually placed second in the battle for first across the line honours after the 16km bike leg. She covered that in a 30:33 effort - the fifth fastest on the day.
Though another young gun in Sienna Whalan managed to catch her on the run, Nelson went on to cross the line in third off the back of a 14:02 split.
It gave her the impressive fourth outright ranking, while she also took the honours in the 10-14 years age group ahead of Emily Tallentire (50:03) and Maria Hines (56:01).
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