Battling through wind, heat and a lengthy course in Perth, Australia, Whistler’s Greg Sandkuhl stormed to victory in the 2009 ITU World Long Distance Triathlon Championships on Sunday (Oct. 25). Sandkuhl finished atop the Male 65 to 69 age category with a time of five hours, 11 minutes, 29 seconds, some 28 minutes ahead of his closest competitor. Roger Little of the U.S. crossed the line in 5:29:26.

The Perth racecourse featured legs double the length of the Olympic-distance routes, with a three-kilometre swim, 80-kilometre bike ride and 20-kilometre run. Bobbi Sandkuhl reported that the race day began with “very windy” conditions for the swim on the Swan River, and the bike course took the competitors for a spin around Perth, even riding on a freeway with the northbound lanes closed to traffic.

The race closed with a very hot run along the Swan River, Bobbie Sandkuhl wrote, as the mercury climbed above 32 C.

Greg Sandkuhl posted the best time in his category for each leg of the race, and finished 343rd overall among the approximately 767 competitors who completed the gruelling event. Sandkuhl finished the wavy swim in 56:58, for 131st overall, and went on to put up times of 2:25:43 in the bike leg and 1:43:23 in the run.

American Timothy O’Donnell claimed victory with his time of 3:48:15, while Britain’s Jodie Swallow proved to be the fastest Elite Woman of the day with her 4:07:48 time, beating Australia’s Rebekah Keat by more than 11 minutes. France’s Sylvain Sudrie proved to be the second-fastest Elite Male racer, finishing just over a minute behind O’Donnell in 3:49:22.