Nineteen-year-old Maria Gooding of Rainbow Warriors Triathlon Club (RWTC) and 33-year-old Ancil Greene of Trigems Triathlon Club were the female and male winners, respectively, of the first-ever Beach Sprint Triathlon at Las Cuevas on Sunday.

Gooding won the event (750m swim/20km cycle/5km run) on the beach in one hour 35 minutes and 52 seconds, while Greene completed the same course in 1:13.55.

Coming in 42 seconds behind Gooding was ever-green veteran champion Jacqueline Jodhan, followed by Louise Smart and Natalie Gregory in that order.

Second to Greene was teenager Akil Baptiste, 15, who recently won the Caribbean Triathlon Union (CTU) Sprint Championship in Barbados. His time was 1:20.11.

Baptiste is in training to defend his CTU title at the Rainbow Cup in Tobago on May 29, 2010, and to qualify for the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore next August.

In third position among the males was top mountain bike rider, Daniel Koo, followed by 17-year-old Johnathan Paul, who is also training for the Youth Olympic Games.   

The prize for the oldest competitor went to Richard Arrindell, 63, while the youngest was five-year-old Stefan Stuven.

In the children’s race, Sachin Sankar, 12, of Trigems, was the overall winner, followed by Aleem Mohammed, 13, and newcomer Raymond Gardner, 14, and Cathal Long of RWTC.

Mohini Seejattan, 13, of Penal Triathletes, was the girls’ winner.

The winning relay team called themselves Last Minute. They were led by Trinidad and Tobago 2000 Olympic swimmer Sebastian Paddington, and included David Hackshaw and Christopher Smith.

The event, organised by the Rainbow Warriors Triathlon Club, was supported by Blue Waters, Monster Energy Drink, National Flour Mills, and Alstons Marketing.

Eleven children and 26 adults took part in the event, which started at 7.30 a.m.