The winner of the female long course, Danika Greenhalf. Picture: AB Jon Gageler.

A record number of competitors tackled the annual HMAS WATSON biathlon late last year.

A hot but very windy day made life difficult for competitors down at the beach in the swim leg, but the stiff wind was a welcome relief to some in the run leg.

Competition was hot from the starting gun and the leader packs from the short and long course forced the pace, which split the field early on.

CPLPT Simon O'Reagan raced ahead of the long course entrants, setting himself a blistering pace.

He eventually set a new long course record with a time of 50 minutes and 17 seconds, taking 40 seconds off last year's time.

The first short course competitors started crossing the line at 27.02 minutes.

All competitors received singlets and polo shirts with their entrance fee.

This was made possible thanks to the generous support from Australian Defence Credit Union and Serco Gardner Merchant which both contributed $1,000.

Powerade donated a bottle of their product to each competitor.

The winner of each category received $200 worth of Twinlab sports nutrition supplements.

This amounted to a $2,000 sponsorship and meant that the event went down very well with all the competitors.

Results in the long course: Watson male - Darrell Staight; open male - Simon O'Reagan; open female - Danika Greenhalf; team - Christopher Paesler/Chris Dando.

Short course results were as follows: Watson male - Mathew Prince; Watson female - Melissa Blair and Nicole Turner; open male - Nathan Jacobsen; open female - Louise Ryan; team - Ashe Heaton and Chris Wright.