Lewis happy to mix with the elite
JOSH LEWIS broke the hour barrier as he cemented a top-25 finish in the men’s triathlon yesterday on the opening day of competition at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The Guernseyman crossed the line in 58min. 45sec. for 24th place out of 36 finishers in a race won by South African Henri Schoeman in 52-31. Jacob Birtwhistle of Australia and Scotland’s Marc Austin completed the podium with England’s Brownlee brothers, Jonathan and Alistair, seventh and 10th respectively.
Lewis clocked a 9-31 split for his 750m swim before a 30-29 20km bike leg and finally a 17-30 5km run.
The Sarnian finished two places ahead of Jersey triathlete Oliver Turner.
Lewis had been down under for three weeks prior to arriving in the athletes’ village, training with other Great Britain triathletes in Noosa, calling it ‘a great experience’.
‘The facilities are fantastic,’ he added of his Australia adventure. ‘It’s great to be around some of the best athletes in the world.’
A former swimmer himself, Lewis would have also been following with interest the first day performances of Guernsey swim team duo Miles Munro and Tom Hollingsworth.
The backstroke specialist achieved his goal of reaching a semi-final at the first time of asking as Hollingsworth set a new personal best over 100m of 57.61sec. in finishing sixth in his heat.
In the evening session he clocked 58.14 for eighth in his semi-final.
Munro, whose favoured freestyle events are still to come, swum 24.76 for fifth place in his heat of the 50m butterfly.
