The Canberra City Half Ironman saw Olympic hopeful, David Dellow, win his second half ironman distance race in seven years. He last won at the distance in 2000 and since then has been racing short course in a bid to represent Australia at the World Championships and the Olympic Games.

“There are five or six guys all vying for the last spot on the Olympic team, and I am definitely focussing on making that team. I am currently in good form and plan to give them a real shake up,” said Dellow just after he crossed the line. “I’m surprised at the race today actually. I’ve been injury free for a couple of months and have been training hard, but I came to Canberra this weekend to catch up with mates, as I used to live here, so this is a bonus. It’s been a while between drinks.”

Dellow did 'domestique' duty for the Australia team at the ITU World Championships in Hamburg but today he was his own man and scored a comfortable 2min 23sec victory. Age-group athlete Christian Kemp placed second with pro Klayten Smith in third.

In the women’s race, age grouper Michelle Wu was awarded overall victory on corrected time after starting the race in the 18-24 age group. “I had a great swim today which is normally my weakest leg,” said an excited Wu at the finish line. Racing in her first half ironman distance event, Wu didn’t change her Olympic-distance training program leading into the event, indicating that she could an athlete to watch. Her controlled effort was rewarded with the fastest time of the day, including an exceptional 1:23 run split. Amelia Pearson, winner of the Tasmanian Half Ironman in 2005 and a regular top-three finisher in the Snap Half Ironman series was the first professional home while third place went to another age-group athlete, Emma Major. Full results are here.

Next event in the Snap Australian Half Ironman Series is on February 10th in Geelong where the Snap Ironman 70.3 doubles as the grand final of the domestic series and is also part of the worldwide Ironman 70.3 series.

At the third of Fun2Tri's Swim Run Race aquathlon series at Nantwich's Snowhill Pool the overall winner was Claire Beresford in 0:45:03 with Peter Roome finishing as fastest man in 0:46:55. The event also featured two other, shorter aquathlons and the results for all three races are here.

Not strictly a race, more a sort of club versus club thing, but Saturday morning saw a Mob Match between the massed ranks of Thames Turbo and Ful-on Tri in Richmond Park. The end result was a victory for Ful-on Tri and there's a full report on the proceedings here.