Story by Les Tan. Pictures by Lai Jun Wei and Low Sze Sen.
Tanjong Beach, Sentosa, Sunday, April 20, 2008 – Daniel Plews emerged from the water in second place behind Clement Chow but a fast run helped him overhaul Chow to win the sprint biathlon at the inaugural Singapore Sprint Series. Plews came out of the 750m swim leg four seconds behind Clement Chow (12min 36.01s) but his 5km run time of 17:06.10 was 2 minutes, 41 seconds faster, allowing him to romp home first in 30:04.65, followed by Clement in 32:35.74.
Halligan Quin, who was third out of the swim in 12:40.38, managed to retain third place overall despite a run time of 20:23.08 that was 9th best. 15 seconds behind in fourth place was Sebastien Calle, who made up for a slower swim (15:05.60) with the second fastest run of the day with a time of 18:16.78.
Amos Tan, who finished seventh overall, came out of the water in fifth place (13:14.66) but a 22:21.38 run saw him drop a few places. “I came out fourth but I was overtaken by two guys like I was standing still!” said Amos. “Near the end, I had to keep going to make sure the guy behind me didn’t catch up with me,” said the former school swimmer whose pet event was the butterfly. Amos is no stranger to endurance events, having done the Kapas-Marang Swimathon, a 6.5km open sea swim event staged in Malaysia, as well as the Singapore Open Water Swim.
A total of 330 biathletes hit the waters in three waves, and around half who did the race were first-timers to the sport. The first two waves were for competitive biathletes while the third was a less competitive start for those just out to enjoy the event. With each wave having only about 100 starters, biathletes were spared the chaotic swim starts that marked the recent Singapore Biathlon where each wave had around 300.
Race chips, usually given out before race day together with the race pack, were only given out on the day of the race. The organisers, Tribob, did this so that first-time biathletes, with other things on their minds, wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting the chip on race day itself. This caused the first wave to be delayed by 20 minutes. Whatever complaints were outweighed in the end by how the whole race was organised.
“The swim was comfortable and the race was well organised,” said Sridhar Varadaraj who hails from Coimbatore, India, and who flew in specially for this race. “Swimming is new to me and it was my first time swimming in a race.” Sridhar, who found time to train at East Coast Park whenever he was in town for business, will be back in Singapore for the Ironman 70.3 race later in the year.
The sprint biathlon is the first of three races in the Singapore Sprint Series, with series points for those who compete in two out of the three races. The next race in the series is duathlon followed by a triathlon.
To read about the second race in the series, go to: Sebastien Calle wins sprint duathlon but Clement Chow maintains overall series lead
For more details, please visit www.singaporesprintseries.com.
[…] Related stories: Sebastien Calle pips Clement Chow to win Singapore Sprint Series Sebastien Calle wins sprint duathlon but Clement Chow maintains overall series lead Daniel Plews pips Clement Chow to win inaugural Singapore Sprint Series biathlon […]
[…] read about the first race in the series, go to the following story: Daniel Plews pips Clement Chow to win inaugural Singapore Sprint Series biathlon For more information on the sprint triathlon, go to http://www.singaporesprintseries.com. Tight turns on […]