Maiers claims race one

 Mike Maiers and Jocelyn Pollock won their respective categories as the Dragons' Summer Tri Series kicked off for the 2007 season on Sunday at hot, humid and traffic-congested Shek O.

Temperatures moved over 30 degrees despite the early start, taking their toll on a 30-strong field on a course that featured a 400 metre swim, a 25km ride and a 4km run from Shek O Beach to Big Wave Bay and back.

Despite the steadily climbing mercury, sea conditions were perfect for the swim and, not surprisingly, Pollock and Michael Bucek emerged from the water sharing first place after a 400 metre splash inside the perimeter of the shark nets, only for both to slip back on the 25km bike leg as Maiers shot to the front.

Trailing the leaders by a little over half a minute following the swim, Maiers powered up the hill and onto Shek O Road to build a lead over the two-loop course that he was never in danger of relinquishing.

That was despite the best efforts of Bemet, who had passed Luke Wimbush by the end of the bike leg to move into second place, while a blistering ride by Dane Cantwell in his first-ever triathlon pulled him into contention.

Wimbush started the 4km run in third followed by Cantwell with Paul Thompson further back in fifth while Bucek dropped out at the end of the ride.

With a lead of over a minute going into his strongest discipline, Maiers was never in danger of being caught and by the end he had extended the gap over Bemet to 1 minute 34 seconds - finishing in a time of 1 hour 6 minutes 54 seconds.

That left a grimacing and rapidly fading Bemet battling hard to fend off the challenges of Wimbush and Cantwell, but it was a feat the Australian just about managed to pull off.

A strong finish saw Cantwell take third place, just eight seconds adrift of second, with Wimbush in fourth. Meanwhile, an impressive performance in the run saw Christophe Lee sear through the field to claim fifth, just ahead of Mark Jones.

In the ladies race, Pollock entered T2 with an ample cushion over second-placed Nicola Walker with Maria Crowley starting the run in third.

Pollock held onto her advantage to win in a time of 1 hour 18 minutes 38 seconds, a little over four minutes ahead of Walker while a solid run saw Crowley consolidate her position in third.

The second in the four-race series will be held, again at Shek O Beach, will be held on July 22.