Rayon Dyer, Gleaner Reporter

Allan Beckford of the Jamaica Automobile Association and Mey Phillips emerged overall winners of the male and female sections in the 13th staging of the annual Jake's Off Road Triathlon, which took place last weekend.

Beckford had a swim split of 6.00; a bike split of 57.10; and a running split of 28.15 to come up with a final time of 1:31.25, while Phillips had a swim split of 8.06; a bike time of 1:04.06 and a running split of 48.32 for a final time of 2:00.44.

Top athlete

Redgy Tytgat from Belgium was the top athlete in the over 50 category with a final time of 1:45.28. Other notable participants were Randy Boba, Horace Burey, David Linehan, Dominic Walters, as well as the trio of Andy Jones, Lechester Beech and Craig Cooke who emerged as the top relay team. They all won cash, plaque, cellphones and a mountain bike.

Event organiser Jason Henzell said a lot of work was put into this year's event to make it successful, adding he was happy for the support of its sponsors.

"We are grateful to sponsors such as Wisynco, Wallen Ford Blue Mountain Coffee, Sandals Whitehouse, Strawberry Hill and Couples Resort," he said.

Happy with event

"I am happy with the event, particularly because 75 per cent of the competitors in the races really did it for fun and that has been the most interesting part of the triathlon on a yearly basis," noted Henzell.

Samartha Harris of Wisynco, who is also brand manager for the Nature Valley line of products, said while it was her first year, the event is one which she was very much interested in being associated with in the future because it represents broad-based sporting activities.

The event, which started at 7:00 a.m. with a 500-metre sea swim at Great Bay, followed by the 25km bike race that took the riders through the back roads of neighbouring communities and culminated with a 7km run, which ended at Jake's.

Proceeds from this year's event will go to the Breds Treasure Foundation, to continue its community outreach projects.

"We are proud to support this community fundraiser," said David Burton, brand manager of Wata. "Breds is a worthy organisation to support through the triathlon, which is a one of a kind sporting event in Jamaica."

The best was left for last when Henzell announced that work has started on the Treasure Beach Sports Complex. The news was greeted with thunderous applause from the audience, most of whom are from the community. He noted that $700,000 was donated by Bruce Bicknell of Tank-Weld Metals, $300,000 by Jake's and $300,000 by the management of Marblue Hotel, which will go towards the work on the complex.