Hollee Simons claims women's overall top 10 result in Huskisson Triathlon Festival

Bathurst recorded a number of podium results and age champion efforts, led by an overall top 10 performance from Hollee Simons in the women's ultimate event on Sunday.

Simons won the 20-29 years category - and the Australian Long Course Age Champion title that went with it - by completing the 1.9 kilometre swim, 89.4km ride and 21.1km run in a time of four hours, 51 minutes and 20 seconds.

It was Simons' first time breaking the five hour barrier.

Simons improved to 10^th overall from her 29^th place result the previous year, and beat the 2021 20-29 years champion Jess Raupach by more than 11 minutes.

"I really wanted to try and beat Jess since she's beaten me in two races before this. I also finally broke that five hour mark, which was a massive relief," Simons said.

"The weather was so much better than expected. It was predicted to be somewhere around 80mm on Saturday and 60mm on Sunday but we raced with no rain and dry roads, so it couldn't have been much better.

"The swim was probably a little longer than 1.9km was so maybe the times were a little slower than some might have expected, but everyone's on the same course so it's irrelevant. I was quite happy with my swim, which was a solid start to the day.

"I felt fast on the bike and got some momentum there and good flow on the course. The run went well, went out quite strong until about the 16km, and then the last 2.5km felt like the longest 2.5km I've ever run.

"The wheels started to fall off a little bit at that point but I was still really happy."

Simons was trying her best not to keep the clock stuck in her mind but had a degree of confidence midway through the run that her goal was in reach.

"I'd say with probably about 10km into the run I was convinced that I'd break the five hour mark as long as things didn't fall apart too much," she said.

"I was trying not to focus on that too much during the race though because the more you focus on that the more it can play with your head."

Mercede Cornelius-Feltus claimed gold in Friday's 1km open water women's swim (13:20) and her brother, Tommaso came within four seconds of doing the same in the men's (12:11) as he took silver.

Nick North was seventh overall in the swim while Simons, Richard Hobson and Rory Gallagher all came within a spot of age group podiums.

Tommaso Cornelius-Feltus then won his age group in Saturday's super sprint and finished third overall. Mercede Cornelius-Feltus (second) and North (third) each claimed podiums in the sprint triathlon.

There were other strong results for the Bathurst crew alongside Simons' achievement in Sunday's ultimate race.

Simons passed coach Richard Hobson in the dying moments of the race, finishing just 28 seconds clear. Hobson snared a top 10 result in the 50-54 men's event as he came in 121^st overall.

Tom Hanrahan (4:53:50, 131^st overall) was just a few minutes behind the pair.

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