
Sri Chinmoy Yerrabi Multi-Sport Race Report 4 May 2008
A chilly morning soon surrendered to a sky full of sun and infinite blue.
The Sri Chinmoy Yerrabi/Muligans Flat Multi-Sport is traditionally a quite intimate, almost family affair and this year continued the trend, with 38 entrants toeing the starting line.
The Long Course athletes headed south while the Short Course entrants started off to the north for the first run around the serene Yerrabi Pond. This short run was prelude to a paddle - one lap of 2.5 kms for the Short Course and 2 laps for the Long. The pond was picture-perfect, but rather too cool for a swim, as one or two paddlers discovered when their craft turned bottom-up!
Paddle craft were exchanged for mountain bikes â after another half-loop of the pond, riders headed into the woodlands of Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo Nature Reserves. This ride is mostly flat and not too technical, an ideal course for either a good fast hit-out or nice easy Sunday ride. The race concluded as it began, with one last turn around the pond on foot.
Mark McDonald was a convincing winner in the Long Course Solo event, with the fastest time for most of the individual disciplines. Meanwhile Peter Fogarty notched 4th fastest time overall to take out the Men Over 50s division. The one disappointment of the race was the absence of any female entrants in the Solo Long Course.
In the Short Course Solo Male division, Gordon Mitchell (racing in the Over 50s) came even closer to the outright win, finishing only 25 seconds behind first place Al Boyle from Wollongong. Carmen Jeffery placed 6th outright with her clear win in the Solo Women's Short Course race.
Meanwhile the team "Mother and Sons" defended their crown from last year to take home the Mixed Team category (Short Course).
Full results by category are published.
The next race in the Sri Chinmoy Multi-Sport series is the Sri Chinmoy Off-Road Duathlon on Sunday 6 July at Black Mountain Reserve.