Bathurst's triathletes dominate top 10 at Orange's Central West Inter Club round

Places four through to nine all belonged to Bathurst triathletes, with Luke Gillmer leading that bunch in a time of one hour, one minute and 52 seconds over the long course event.

Gillmer narrowly missed out on a podium result to Mudgee's Hamish Jackson (1:01:36). Orange's Rory Thornhill (58:00) claimed the overall victory ahead of Mudgee's Gareth Fuller (59:38).

Bathurst then dominated the next run of positions through Richard Hobson (1:03:40), Mark Windsor (1:05:12), Jack Reen (1:05:14), Mercede Cornelius-Feltus (1:05:26) and Thomas Hanrahan (1:05:38).

Cornelius-Felton and Hollee Simons (1:07:01, 12^th overall) completed a Bathurst 1-2 in the overall women's race.

Windsor said it's a great sign for the sport in Bathurst to see strong participation and results.

"It's always nice to have a lot of Bathurst athletes in the top 10. It's a record we'd like to keep," he said.

"Mercede was very impressive because she's only new to cycling, so to do that time was great and it shows a lot of potential. She's got a great future, and given that we've got Hollee as well we've got two strong women.

"That's an area where Orange used to dominate so with those two we're always going to go well. We're also getting plenty of points through other age groups and people winning their divisions."

There were some brilliant legs from the Bathurst competitors, with Cornelius-Feltus having the second fastest swim and Reen producing the second fastest run.

Windsor said the Gosling Creek Reserve course does a great job at highlighting competitors' strengths.

"Luke was strong right across the board and he's got a lot happening at the moment so he's probably not getting in as much training as he would have liked but he's got a lot of ability across all three legs," he said.

"I actually had no idea Jack was right behind me, I had no idea he was coming. Generally I'm aware of what's going on and he came up to finish just two seconds off me and he could have easily beaten me without me realising.

"There's a lot of stress on each of the legs and everyone's favourite leg is really pronounced there. It's a freshwater swim that really suits strong swimmers, the big leg is tough and then on the run everyone is stressed from those first two legs so the good runner come through.

"At other races we tend to find ourselves more bunched up and in grudge matches."

The Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club local round takes place this Sunday.

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