Sports
Greenwich Cup Triathlon Goes Off Despite Heavy Rain [Video]
Katie Couric was on hand as more than 500 participants swim, bike and run through rain and slippery conditions.
It is hard enough to compete in a triathlon but add intermittent torrential downpours, and Sunday's 25th annual Greenwich Cup may have qualified as a quadrathlon.
On a course that would normally see the winner finish in an hour or less, the heavy winds on the sound and the wet pavement forced the athletes to navigate the half-mile swim, 15-mile bike and three-mile run course with extreme caution.
Race founder, sponsor and organizer Mickey Yardis, of Threads and Treads, walked up and down the beach and transition stage reminding the athletes that, “even though EMS is all over the course, we would not like to use them.”
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Mitch West, 41, of Wilton, was the first elite wave finisher. He navigated the course in a time of 1:10:49. Kevin Farley, 30 and Brian Mailo, 40, both of whom traveled from NYC’s Upper West Side to compete in this event, were second and third, respectively.
In the woman’s elite, Kelly Montgomery, 30, of Wallingford came across the finish line in 1:16:30. She finished sixth overall in the elite division and was followed by Rose Shabet, 30, of Darien, the only other woman to compete at the elite level.
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If you would like to find out the time and place of a friend, family member or yourself log on to: http://www.threadsandtreads.com/tt_races2011.htm, to get the race results from all of Sunday's race waves.
For anyone thinking about the sport of triathlon, the Greenwich Cup is a great place to start. Several of Sunday's top finishers began their pursuit of a pro or elite career after participating in this event as their first triathlon.
