Triathlon: Champ scared to go in water no more

Karen Toulmin (number 373) wants to go as far as possible.

Karen Toulmin always wanted to be a triathlete but a fear of open-water swimming stopped her ... until last year.

She made it her New Year's resolution to become a better swimmer and completed her first triathlon last October. Five months later, she was crowned Triathlon Hawke's Bay Open women's club champion.

The Shed 2 Triathlon and Duathlon series wrapped up with the club championship at Pandora Pond at the weekend. Toulmin won the Avanti Plus Hastings Triathlon (750m swim, 21km cycle, 4.5km run) in 1hr06m32s.

Toulmin, who has a running background, said it was "really exciting" to win the club title.

"I've come a long way and improved a lot over the season."

She couldn't swim 200m at the beach 18 months ago but has taken 10 minutes off her time since her first race of the season in October.

"I love this sport and I've finally found what I really want to do. It's such an amazing club."

This month, she made the podium at the North Island standard-distance champs to qualify for the world champs: "My goal is to go as far as I can in triathlon."

Just behind were Bridget Lodge (1:07:21) and Emma Mackie (1:09:54), ex-national representatives.

Linda Exeter-Grant (veteran 1) backed up a strong effort at the recent Ironman New Zealand, finishing in 1:07:03.

Jeremy Natusch was Open men's club champ in 57m13s, with Bruce Richardson second (1:02:27) and Glen Harkness third (1:03:24).

The Bay secondary schools' championship was run alongside the series at Pandora Pond. Prue Boult was the fastest senior female (1:09:28) while Lachlan Cairns won the senior male race in 59m48s.

Sophie Hogan completed a successful season as fastest junior female in 38m30s over the 200m swim, 14km cycle and 2km run. Sebastian Fergusson was fastest junior male (36:43).