GRENADA - Around 200 athletes from Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, Nevis, the USA, Holland, Germany and the United Kingdom came out in large numbers on the first weekend in May to take part in the 21st annual Grenada Triathlon. Race headquarters for May 3rd and 4th’s events were at the Lance Aux Epines Cottages. The swim course was completed in the sheltered Lance Aux Epines Bay and the bike and run courses of various distances were out on the Lance Aux Epines road and the Maurice Bishop Highway. Competition and conditions out on the course were hot hot hot!! The weekends racing began on Saturday morning with five individual children’s races, Around 50 juniors completed with a large contingent of juniors from the Trinidad and Tobago Triathlon Association. In the Quinn Co. Ltd 6 & Under age group youngsters from Grenada and Trinidad showed what strong competitors they were, with 1st Male going to Simon Eligon of Trinidad and 1st Female to Molly Solomon of Grenada, in front of Dylan Solomon and Rayne Archibald of Grenada. The Quinn Co.Ltd 7-8 age group was hard fought, with Ryan Eligon of Trinidad taking 1st Male and the UK’s Katie Lillie winning 1st Female. The True Blue Bay Resort 9-10 age group was won by Daniel Steele and Deleon Felix both of Grenada. The 11-12 age group sponsored by True Blue Bay Resort, had the most competitors, with a very strong contingent from Grenada and Trinidad. 1st Male went to Sachin Sankar of Trinidad, and Leanne Eligon also from Trinidad was 1st female. The 13-15 age group sponsored by Grenada Bottling Co Ltd was won by Akil Baptiste of Trinidad followed by his rival Callum Wright of Barbados. 1st female was Bethany Pile of Barbados followed by Amanda Gordon of Grenada. Three adult races were held, a Try a Tri race sponsored by Republic Bank for triathlon novices, the Insurance Consultants Sprint distance race and for the first time ever, an Olympic Distance race was run (involving a 1.5 k swim, 40 k bike and a 10 k run). The Sprint distance race was won by Matthew Wright of Barbados and Julia Bisschops of Holland a student of St.George’s University. The Sprint distance relay winners were Grenada’s Team Dopwell- Nataly Regis, Rhett Dopwell and Lenworth George. The Sprint distance National Champions are Danny Donelan and Ayesha Noel. Top places in the Olympic distance race were hard fought and were won by David Hay of Trinidad and Miranda Fellowes of Nevis. Olympic distance relay winners were a Grenadian team composed of Tuesday Watts, Troy Felix and Jewel Lewis. National Champions for the Olympic distance race are Marc DeCaul and Clare Morrall. Sunday May 4th was triathlon Fun Day in Grenada, with the entire day sponsored by Digicel. The races are divided into categories according to the total age of the team members and each team member completes one discipline – to swim ride or run. A total of 41 teams made up of 123 athletes raced and had fun before enjoying a fun lime on the beach. Trophies and medals were presented to winners of the Sprint and Olympic events at an Awards Ceremony and Dinner at True Blue Bay Resort on Saturday and all winners of the individual children’s races and Digicel relay events took their prizes at the end of the event on Sunday at Lance Aux Epines Cottages. The 21st Annual Grenada Triathlon was made possible through the generous contributions and support from our sponsors. Our host sponsor was Lance Aux Epines Cottages. Our key platinum sponsors were Insurance Consultants of Grenada and Digicel. Silver sponsors were Blue Horizon Garden Resort, Grensure Fire and General Insurance, Quinn Company Limited, True Blue Bay Resort and Villas, Deco Industries 1990 Ltd and Grenada Handbags Ltd. Bronze sponsors were Banana Boat, Grenada Bottling Co. Ltd. and Republic Bank. Last but not least were our Nutmeg sponsors of Nutmed, St. George’s University, Marketing & National Importing Board, B’s Hot Spot and Wave Crest. The Grenada Triathlon Association thanks all our event sponsors and our long standing association sponsor is ModOne. We would also like to thank all the volunteers who donated time supporting the 21st annual event and helped us make the event run smoothly and safely. Finally, we would like to thank the Royal Grenada Police Force for their assistance controlling traffic out on the race course. The association has received many thanks from those who participated in the weekends racing. We are confident that next year the Annual Grenada Triathlon will attract participants from the region and beyond and we look forward to being an important part of Grenada’s Sport Tourism attractions in 2009. Full event results, photographs and information on the 21st Annual Triathlon are available at the association website: www.grenadatriathlon.com.