Bridgetown, Barbados – BFIT completed their 27th Annual Barbados National Triathlon Championship at Spring Garden Highway on Sunday October 15th. The event hosted 150 total competitors from Barbados, Trinidad, Grenada, UK, Canada, Jamaica, Antigua, Martinique, Colombia and Chile across 3 events; sprint triathlon, Olympic distance and relays.
The male and female national championship race was Olympic distance (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km). The male race was a spectacle to behold as the top three competitors battled it out until the very end in front of a huge and loud crowd. Philip McCatty (32) from Jamaica was able to defend his overall title from 2016 in a blistering time of 1:58.53, followed by Jason Costelloe (32) of Trinidad edged out third place Oein Josiah of Barbados (2:05.14). Fourth place went to Alexander Porte and fifth to Ian Moore, both competitors from the UK. Josiah being the first Barbadian across the line was awarded the title of Barbadian Male National Champion.
In the female national championship race, the overall winner and national champion was Barbadian Amy Cox (23) in at time of 2:17.42, finishing behind her was former National Champion Jennifer Wosminity (39), followed by Inga Karasek (37) of Canada and Magda Leschik (33) of Trinidad.
In the male sprint race (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run), it was British Oliver Caudwell (22) who took the first-place spot in a time of 1:02.41, followed by 6th place CARIFTA finisher, Trinidadian Jonathan Thompson (16). Third and fourth place went to former National Champions, Wayne Edwards (51) and Greg Austin (49) respectively and 5th went to Neil Burke (49).
In the female sprint distance a lot of top finishers were competitors at the CARIFTA championships last week. First place went to Trinidadian CARIFTA bronze medalist Rachel Grosberg (16) in a time of 1:11.22, 2nd was her country mate Kristin St. Omer (16) who was also a CARIFTA podium finisher, 3rd was Barbadian long distance runner turned triathlete Laura Bryan (40), 4th place was Alana Lee Wo (48) of Trinidad and 5th was Barbadian tennis standout Donna Gibbs (46).
Defending champions Akeem Nurse, Russell Elcock and Pierre Stanford won the sprint relay in a time of 57.55, followed by the team of Simon Wilkie, Luke Staffner and Orin Josiah (59.45) and in third was the team of Danielle Clarke, Kyle Gill and Danielle Treasure (1:03.46).
The large crowd and athletes were treated to an exhibition race with professional Canadian triathlete Karsten Madsen, who completed the Olympic distance event using a mountain bike. Karsten was using the event to prepare for the XTerra World Championship in Maui, Hawaii later this month.
BFIT will close out its race calendar this year with a beach Aquathlon on Sunday, November 19 as part of the Barbados Invitational Independence Games.
BFIT is the governing federation for triathlon and triathletes in Barbados. BFIT sanctions and organizes multi-sport events, which include Triathlon, Duathlon and Aquathlon. For more information on future events and the sport of triathlon contact triathlonbarbados@gmail.com.
