Sports

Hard running earns bronze
By Barry Rollings

Edition 1162, March 22, 2007
 
Pipped at the post: WO2 Gavin Wickham finished third at the Australian Defence Sports Triathlon Association’s long course championship after a strong finish from Flt-Lt Richard Gardiner.
Photo by Sqn-Ldr Julian Weeler
WO2 Gavin Wickham was overrun on the home stretch and had to settle for third at the Australian Defence Sports Triathlon Association’s long course championship.

WO2 Wickham was poised to finish second in the titles at Huskisson on the NSW South Coast on February 24-25, after completing the 2km swim in 30min and 3sec, and the bike leg in 2:18.19.

He followed the eventual winner, Air Force’s Cpl Geoff Hanckel, closely out of the water as both looked set to make it a re-match from the nationals in November.

But WO2 Wickham had no counter to the withering finish of Flt-Lt Richard Gardiner despite running consistently.

He had to be content with the bronze medal and also finished third in the men’s 35-39 year-olds and 39th overall.

Flt-Lt Gardiner, who has a strong athletics pedigree, flew home in the 20km run where he shaved about five minutes off Cpl Hanckel’s advantage.

His 1:10.22 to Cpl Hanckel’s 1:15.34 was the third fastest time of all contestants – military and civilian.

While he stormed past WO2 Wickham, his surge was not enough to nab first place in the ADSTA championship.

Cpl Hanckel completed the 2km swim, 83km bike ride and 20km run in 3hr 53min and 32sec, just ahead of Flt-Lt Gardiner in 4:05.11 and WO2 Wickham in 4:07.23.

It was Cpl Hanckel’s swimming leg that set the seal on his win when he established an eight-minute lead over Flt-Lt Gardiner.
The top three ADSTA competitors kept it pretty tight on the bike, riding within minutes of each other.

Maj Darren Moore (Army) did his best to keep with the pace but a slashed tyre and three tubes forced his early exit.

Twelve brave souls contested the second major ADSTA event for the season and six of them also contested the Australian sprint course championships held on the Saturday.

The standout performance was Christina Thorne, who was second in her age group in 1hr and 16min.