The Bathurst Wallaby’s Nick North and Orange Piranhas Lauren Kerwick have set the early pace in the race for this year’s Central West Interclub titles.
North took out the opening race of the series in Cowra on Sunday morning defeating Piranhas young gun Rory Thornhill with Matt Webster of Mudgee Devils in third place.
Kerwick, fresh from a podium finish at this year’s ITU World Championships on the Gold Coast where she finished third in her age group, ran out a comfortable winner from club mate Jessica Richards with another Orange athlete, Estelle Dean finishing third.
Cowra has unearthed a talent this year with Michael Stallard, who has competed in only a handful of events, finishing in fourth spot with Bathurst’s Mark Windsor continuing to defer the years, rounding out the top five.
In the women’s race Orange club members Jessie Dean and Kim Dale completed the event’s top five.
Under a revised points system this year the top five finishers in the Sprint race receive bonus points for their clubs, the first three in each age group receive performance points and five members from each club, in each age group receive participation points.
Each interclub event is then decided on a basis of 5,4,3,2, 1 points to the clubs on the day with five going to the club which amasses the most points.
In addition to the major sprint race a super sprint will be held at each race this year, which is open to competitors of all age groups, giving clubs a chance to give their points a major boost. Despite this fact all competitors at the Cowra race were aged under 20.
Under the new format Orange leads the series on 5 points from Bathurst on 4, Cowra on 3, Mudgee on 2 and Dubbo on 1 point.
