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AJ Anderson claims triathlon gold as he stormed to victory in Lombok, Indonesia on Sunday 8th November 2009
 It was a beautiful day for the 3rd Annual Lombok International Triathlon, as the 29 year old Australian led from the start of the race and never looked like being caught, as he won in two hours, 24 minutes and 15 seconds.
Local favourites Rajar Kadri and Dwi Ratsongko came 2nd and 3rd overall.
British professional triathlete Graham Wadsworth, who recently participated in the Xterra World Championships, struggled with mechanical problems on the bike, finished 23rd overall, despite clocking 38 minutes and 12 seconds on the run.
Anderson made it clear that this was his race, putting more than 3 minutes on swim from the rest of the field. By the time the Hong Kong based Australian neared the finish line, he had more than 13 minutes on his nearest competitor. He took his time over the final few meters and savored the finish after running a near perfect race.
 “The Lombok International Triathlon is the Alpes D’huez of Asian Triathlon.” Anderson said of the event, held at the Sheraton Senggigi Beach Resort. “Everything was very smooth from start to finish. The race organisation was fantastic and I will definitely come back next year to defend my title.”
In the women’s race, Chin Shi Yin from Malaysia and Orla Gilmore from the UK battled it out to claim top honours. With a recent strong finish at the Vietnam International Triathlon, Chin overtook Gilmore at the closing stages of the race to claim her first victory in Lombok clocking an overall time of 3 hours, 1 minute and 22 seconds.
Gilmore, a former elite diver and current national diving coach of Singapore, led from the swim and despite being overtaken on the bike leg, managed to recapture the lead on the run. However the Singapore based Malaysian, Chin, who had been training hard with Tribob’s training programme, eventually retook the lead clocking an impressive 52 minutes and 44 seconds on the hilly 10km run course to claim overall honours.
“I’m hoping to come back next year, two in a row would be fantastic,” said Chin, a recruitment consultant. “It’s nice going into next year in really good form.”
Despite temperatures exceeding 32°C on race day, most athletes were able to finish strong with the support of Pocari Sweat at drink stations and Science in Sport providing gels and bars for all participants, volunteers and race crew. Apart from the race, spectators were also treated to a traditional form of music and drumming called Gendang Belbeq, provided by the Lombok Tourism Department.
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