MARIGOT—SXM Tri Academie’s Gregory Pigeon added a win in Sunday’s triathlon to his win the week before in the first Friar Bay Beach Café trail run, showing that he is in great form to take on the daunting Saba Triathlon coming up on May 14.
The Antennas Challenge (Le Defi des Antennes) organised by French side club SXtreme Runners made a welcome return to the sports calendar since it was last held in 2020. The event offered participants a 1,000-metre swim from the beach in Friar’s Bay followed by an 8K mountain bike ride to the summit of Pic Paradis (where the antennas are) and finishing off with a 4K run. The race could be done individually or in teams of three.
A weather system that was supposed to bring rain and flash flooding on Saturday never materialised and left perfect cool and damp conditions for Sunday’s event. Indeed, as bike riders ascended the hill to the summit of Pic Paradis, they were greeted with poor visibility, low cloud and mist the closer they got to the top but no rain.
Pigeon won the individual category in 1:21:32 followed by Alexandre Guerre (Tarascon Athleticisme) in 1:33: 03 and third place went to Jeanot Gouin from Inter Generation Runners in 1:37:40.
The talking point of the day was Velo Club de Sandy Ground’s (VCSG) young rider Jahkim Carty who finished sixth in the individual event in a time of 1:47:13 despite not being a good swimmer.
Other notable performances came from Juan Pablo Piscione, always in good shape, in eighth place (1:52:09), and Krispijn Teunissen in ninth place (1:55:36).
Susy Piscione was the only female participating in the individual event completing it in 2: 16:33. The team event was won by Team Connected (Saphir Thomas swim—second out of the water, Mark Maidwell bike and Andy Guibreteau run) in 1:14:32. Second place went to Team A Todo Gas in 1:33:59 and third place to Team Breizh in 1:37::45.
“This was really good training for the Saba Triathlon,” remarked Susy Piscione. “Jahkim (Carty) was probably one of the last to come out of the water in the swim and I was a long way ahead of him. But then he flew past me on the bike going up to Pic Paradis.
“He suffered on the run as that is not his strong point either, but he did so well. He won goggles and swimming equipment so let’s see if he can keep up the motivation to do more triathlons.”
