Lizzy Bunckenburg is the new queen of Jindabyne. It might be said, that to come first out of a field of one in the solo women’s field, is not an astonishing achievement (though just to finish this race is demonstrably an incredible feat). But – Lizzy not only won her category on the day, she also bettered the times of every solo woman in the 20-year history of this race, setting a new course record and even beating the 11 hour barrier, clocking an amazing 10:59:20 to eclipse another Kiwi, Julie Quinn’s best time from 16 years ago. For good measure, Lizzy set new leg records for the 1st swim (22:19), 1st bike (40:48), 2nd swim (47:04), 2nd paddle (30:18), and 3rd swim (26:35) along the way. Placing 2nd among the solo competitors, Lizzy was the picture of consistency, with a clear focus and buoyant demeanour through every leg of a long, demanding journey. Lizzy, we are in awe!

Solo men’s winner, Daniel Stein from Salamander Bay, showed his intent from the very start, coming 2nd out of the water at Kalkite amongst the gun team swimmers, and never looked back to record one of the fastest finishing times ever, crossing the line in 4th outright among all finishers including teams, with a fabulous all-round performance of 9:36:15. Daniel looked as fresh at Banjo Patterson Park as he had at the start, and ready for another round. All our admiration and respect, Daniel!

Malcolm Brown was 2nd male solo, with an impressive outing of 11:48:44 in his much-anticipated return to Jindabyne after waiting out the seemingly endless postponements. A superb effort from you, Malcolm!

Neck and neck with Malcolm until the final run leg, Aston Duncan crossed the line a few minutes later in 11:52:12 to take out the Male Over 50s category. After enduring some setbacks last year, Aston’s performance marked a rousing and inspiring personal triumph. Bravo, Duncan!

Among the teams, a new record was established for Open Teams of 4, All Over 50, by “Corbeaus”, an ensemble of Andrew Tooher, Jon King, Ben Hams and Adam Crowe, winning their category despite riding some extra km on the long bike, in 11:00:29.

Tim Boote is a former winner of this race and had planned to enter solo again. With an injury preventing him from running, many would have thrown in the towel for this year. Instead, Tim teamed up with Ebony Axford to take care of the running, while he completed all the swims, paddle and bike legs, pairing up to win the race outright and take out 1st T4 Open in an impressive 9:18:07. Who knows what Tim might have achieved, had he been able to compete solo?

A few minutes later, the 1st placed T4 Mixed team of “Team Ware plus Georgina” (Mark, Jason and Raynare Ware & Georgina Pembroke) surged across the line with an all-round dominant performance in their category, claiming their trophies in 9:22:29.

“Albury Crew” (Nerida Boyd, Emma Flower, Sarah-Jayne Miller and Goele Schmitz) were impressive winners in the competitive All-Female T4s, in 10:42:11, which included new course records to Emma Flower in the 2nd paddle (25:11), and Sarah-Jayne Miller in the 1st and 2nd run legs (29:29 and 1:07:35 respectively). The other new leg record set on the day was for the revised 2nd bike leg, with Sorcha Flett racing to 26:06 on the new, improved course.

Fastest of all T12 teams (and 6th outright finisher) was the All-Female “Wollondibby Wombats” (Nicole Martin, Larissa Cleverly, Sanda Halpin, Mia Kluth and Eliza Lawton) who set an impressive new course record for their category of 9:51:27.

“Me and my Alter Egos” (Jack and Lauren Cross, Laughlin Gould, Emma Wright and Ashlee Innes) was best T12 grouping on the day, winning with 5 members in 10:37:43; not far ahead of 1st placed T12 Mixed “Aprosexias” (another 5-person team of Josh Crowe, John Hannam, Katie King, Therese and Tim Powell), with 10:44:20.

With this race, we draw the curtain on 20 years of the Sri Chinmoy Multi-Sport Classic in Jindabyne. If the race might return, it would be with a revised course and possibly revised format. Your suggestions are most welcome and will be carefully and gratefully considered. Stay tuned!

Photo album coming soon.

Published results are provisional. Please advise any errors or anomalies to [email protected]