A TALENTED Ōpōtiki duathlete smashed a whopping 45 minutes off his previous best in the duathlon section of the Motu Challenge.

Last weekend’s event was the final Motu Challenge, with the race going into retirement after 31 years because organisers and key personnel are moving on, and there is no one to replace them.

Seventeen-year-old Alex Wilton finished the duathlon section of the race in impressive fashion.

He was less than 10 minutes behind the winner of his section to finish second and in the process ticked off a couple of crucial goals.

“My goal was to go 30 minutes quicker than last year, which I managed by going 45 minutes faster, but when I got onto the last discipline, the road bike, at four hours and 32 minutes, I wanted to do sub seven hours 40, which I managed by going 7.33.

“I wanted to be more consistent across each discipline, which I felt I did well.”

The Ōpōtiki College student is sad to see the end of the multisport race, which has attracted people from all over New Zealand to the region over the past three decades.

He is glad to have been part of the final event.

“I enjoyed the day and it was good to experience it one more time. I will miss competing in the event but 2024 was always going to be my last year for at least the next couple of years as I will be in Wellington studying architecture at Victoria University when the race would normally have been held.”

A few things fell in his favour during the race this year, contributing to his personal best performance.

“The conditions were a lot better this year with a tail wind coming home on the road bike as opposed to last year’s head wind.

“Also, having more experience over the distance helped both with training leading into the race and how to manage my effort throughout the day.

“And better knowledge of nutrition and executing it well led to me not blowing up, unlike last year where I felt I had hit the wall with three hours to go. Also, having everything go right, tactically.

“I don’t think I could go any faster if I tried anything else, and the only thing that went wrong was dropping my chain once, which took less than a minute to fix.”

Alex said the hardest leg of the duathlon was the road bike because he had done four-and-a-half hours of racing before jumping on the bike for the 83-kilometre slog.

“I’ve competed in the Motu Challenge twice, both in the individual long duathlon, finishing third overall in 2023 and second in 2024. I have done tail end Charlie of the run leg twice in 2021 and 2022. (That was being a guide and making sure everyone completed the leg).

His Motu efforts have topped off a big year in various sporting arenas.

Earlier in the year, he broke a 14-year-old Ōpōtiki College cross-country record by one second with a time of 23.47, pipping the previous record by Garth Owen.

It is a record he is proud of, given most of his other records have come in the pool.

“Most of my records are swimming records, so it was cool to get one in something else, especially because I only broke it by one second over a race that took almost 24 minutes to complete.”

Next up for Alex is the school triathlon in which he also want to add his name to the record books.

Looking further ahead, he is entering the 70.3 half ironman in Taupō next year, which will be his biggest test to date.