Representatives from TAFE NSW Orange have dominated the Australian Corporate Triathlon Series in Sydney on the weekend, with team captain Joanne Smith leading her team to victory in the team’s category.
Named One Like the Wind, Joanne was joined by TAFE NSW Leadership and Management student Carolyn Egan and Nicola Harbison from Orange Anglican Grammar School - the trio completing the gruelling 300 metre swim, 10 kilometre ride and 4.5 kilometre run in a combined time of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 15 seconds – more than 13 minutes faster than the next best female team.
Individually, Joanne completed the course in a slashing 55 minutes and 46 seconds, crossing the line as the fastest female in the category.
“As a group we were absolutely thrilled with the result,” Joanne said. “We had no idea we would win, our focus was just on competing, finishing and having fun – we were very surprised but proud to win.”
To make the success even more impressive, Joanne, Carolyn and Nicola are new to triathlons and only started in the sport so they could complete with the rest of the TAFE West team in this event.
“Personally this was only my third triathlon and as a group we only started training for this event after Christmas,” Joanne said.
“We all had one thing that we were comfortable with – for me it was running, for Nicola is was swimming and for Carolyn is was the bike, but we had to work pretty hard to reach a stage where we could each complete each of the three legs.”
TAFE NSW’s other three teams also performed admirably, with Western Warriors (Penny Flannery, Ashleigh Ryan and Jo-Ann Braithwaite) finishing fourth, TAFE Dream Team eighth and Galloping Gals in 10th position.
