Olivier Godart and Lisa Hancox triumphed in their respective sprint (ages 19-39) categories at the Jones Lang LaSalle triathlon on Saturday.
Godart completed the men’s category in just under one hour ahead of runner-up Niels Meissner and Josep Maria Olive Llobet in third place at the Jebel Ali Golf Resort in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Hancox crossed the finish line two minutes faster than Kara Moddeman and Juliet Fulman, who finished second and third respectively, in the ladies category for the age group between 19-39 years.
More than 270 triathletes took part in the swim, bike, run event which had various age categories in the sprint and super sprint disciplines.
Speaking of his win, Godart said: “It’s nice to win. It was good preparation for the Abu Dhabi triathlon. It went well and I improved on my result in October. Physically I’m very, very happy with myself. I did a lot of training and I put out a performance that I wanted to do.
“My bike ride was very good. I rode well. It was really tough for me but I managed to run under 17 minutes in the 5km run.
“I really had to use all my focus, and I didn’t panic. I kept my cool and was calm and I pulled it off,” added Godart, a veteran of the sport for four years. Race director Paul Venn was delighted with the overall number of participants for the event.
“We had so many people taking part in the race. We had a real mixture of nationalities and it was really nice to see so many people.”
Venn said seeing 10 children taking part in the race – the highest number for their age category so far, will convince his son to compete in the future.
“I was very surprised to see a big turn out for the children’s category, which is the best I’ve seen, so I will probably convince my son to take part in this fun race.”
Full results can be found by visiting www.race-me-events.com.
