Pete Jacobs claimed victory in the Coral Coast 5150 yesterday in the first event of the second annual Cairns Airport Adventure Festival.
 
Jacobs barely broke a sweat on the Olympic distance course (1.5km swim, 40km cycle, 10km run) finishing almost eight minutes ahead of his nearest competitor.
 
“I’m training for the longer distance races so to get around this course in less than two hours is relatively short compared to the other races I do, so I feel like I’ve recovered pretty quickly,” Jacobs said.

Showing his class in the sport, Jacobs lead from the start and managed to consistently increase his lead throughout the race.

“I didn’t have a specific race plan,  I’m feeling pretty fit at the moment and just building up for the URBAN Hotel Group Ironman 70.3 Cairns next weekend.”

While he is used to longer races Jacobs enjoyed the fast Coral Coast course despite the windy conditions on the beach run.

“This is a really scenic course, I really enjoyed the bike leg – it’s dead flat, fast and easy to just push it really hard out there.  Although I didn’t realise the run would be along the beach, but it was actually a lot of fun, jumping over the little water outlets,” he added.

Jacobs will fit in one more long training session before tapering and preparing for the URBAN Hotel Group Ironman 70.3 Cairns next Sunday 3 June.

“I’m still training pretty hard this week, my legs were quite sore on the ride today because of all the training I’ve been doing. I’ll probably do one more big training session tomorrow and then take the rest of the week a bit easy with some short sessions and try to really freshen up for the longer distance event next week.

“I’ve got a title to defend at the Green Island Ocean Swim and I’ll probably also do the Cairns Post Run for Cairns as a final tempo run before the main event on Sunday,” Jacobs said.

Shepparton’s Anthony Rule clocked the second fastest time of the day, also taking to the course as a warm-up to next weekend’s Ironman 70.3 Ironman Cairns.

“I’m really happy with my result.  It’s great to race up here and a fair bit warmer that home,” said Rule.
 
“I’m looking forward to racing the 70.3 next weekend.  My main aim this weekend was just to have a good hit out.  Hopefully I’ll also do the Green Island swim as well, I want to make the most of my week in Cairns,” he added. 
 
In the women’s field, Michelle Mitchell claimed line honours; however it was Michelle Wu who clocked the fastest time of the day.
 
Wu started the event in a wave start behind the Open field and made it a priority to play catch up.

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“It was an interesting race, obviously I started in a wave behind the open competitors, they started a bit earlier than what I thought so I just put my head down and tried to catch up,” Wu said.

“I was mainly using this event as a hit out to the 70.3 next weekend, coming from Canberra I wanted to acclimatise and get myself ready for next weekend.

“I felt really strong in the swim and out on the bike I just put my head down and went hard. I wasn’t expecting a run along the beach but I did enjoy it.  Overall I’m really happy with my time, I felt really good,” she added.

Mitchell, who recently won the URBAN Hotel Group Ironman Australia Port Macquarie and claimed second at the Cairns Iron Distance event in 2011 wasn’t aware that Wu was chasing her tail, but was still happy to be the first to cross the line, and use the event as a hit out before tackling the Cairns Airport Ironman Cairns next Sunday.

“It was a really good event.  It was a bit of a challenge for me, coming of an Ironman race two weeks ago but I really needed it today to have a hit out before the big race next weekend,” Mitchell said.

The course was really good, the damp sand probably made it a bit of a slow run but it was really nice to be running with the ocean right next to me and the crowd all along the course.

“I’d really like to get a top 5 finish next weekend and I’ve also got my eye on the Green Island Swim – it looks pretty spectacular so I’d like to have a splash over there,” said Mitchell.
 
However, it wasn’t all about the elite athletes.  Once again the Coral Coast Triathlon saw some of its ‘Legends’ take to the course, including  Gary Alston who notched up his 23rd Coral Coast Tri.
 
“It’s great to be able to say I’ve raced this event 23 times.  I’ve always loved racing the Coral Coast Tri and it just keeps getting bigger and better each year,” said Alston.
 
"I was really impressed with the spectator numbers this year, it’s always nice to have a decent crown cheering you on and giving you the push you need to get to the finish line,” he finished.

In addition to the Olympic distance race, competitors of all ages and abilities took to the Sprint distance course (750m swim / 20km cycle / 5km run) and the Enticer course (300m swim / 10km cycle / 2.5km run).
 
Also kicking off the week-long Cairns Airport Adventure Festival was the Hekili Great Barrier Reef Ocean Challenge which saw 79 crews of OC6, OC2, OC1 and surf skiers and the social ‘Beach Bash’ mountain bike event, which substituted the postponed RRR Mountain Bike Challenge.

In total just over 700 competitors participated in the weekend’s events.  Almost 600 competitors are expected to take part in the RRR Mountain Bike Challenge next weekend.

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