QTS Raby Bay Sprint Triathlon - 1st

In all the Queensland Triathlon Series races I have done I have never been able to pull off a win at the QTS Raby Bay event. I have had some great wins at both the QTS Robina and QTS Caloundra (even one on my birthday a few years ago) but for some reason the QTS Raby Bay event has never been a happy hunting ground of me.

After deciding to sign up the week before I knew that I might not be up to scratch but never the less wanted to try and break my winless record on this tough course.

I had a great swim emerging 2nd behind ace swimmer Shane Barrie thanks in part to my super fast Huub swim skin.

Onto the bike I rode very smart covering any major moves and even trying a sneaky attack off the front which the boys behind quickly closed the gap on. Due to the tight course I opted to race on my S-Works Venge rather than my S-Works Shiv as I felt that the Venge was better suited to the tight and twisty cycle course. A small gap opened up between myself and Callum Millward of NZ and Australian Commonwealth Games runner Mitch Kealey in the late stages of the bike leg which meant I hit transition with a small time gap to make up.

I went out onto the run chasing hard and shut down the gap to two leaders within the first 300m with only Mitch Kealey being able to stay in touch with me. As the run went on I tried hard to keep the pace high and by the half way turn around I had about 10 seconds on 2nd place and another 25 seconds or so to Callum Millward and Drew Box who were running in 3rd and 4th positions. I was able to put a few more seconds into Mitch by the end of the 5km run leg and take my first ever win over the 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run QTS Raby Bay event.

Sam Betten, 1st (54:53), 2nd, Mitch Kealey (55:14) and 3rd, Drew Box (55:45)

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