A new multisport event involving kayaking was added to the Otago-Southland secondary schools triathlon this year.
Staged in Cromwell on Thursday, the triathlon attracted 220 young athletes from throughout Otago and Southland.
Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association sports director Des Smith was pleased with the support for the competition and said the new event, with a kayak leg, added an extra challenge.
"There's only a few entrants in this event this year but we expect numbers to build up in the future.
"We thought we'd add the kayak triathlon for those schools that struggle to field a swimmer in their team.
Then they have the option of having a kayaker instead."
Competitors in the swim triathlon had to swim 300m, bike 20km and run 6km.
The kayak triathlon involved a 3km kayak, followed by the bike and running leg.
Smith was thrilled with the overall entries in the individual and team classes and said the field was the largest for some time.
Competitors started the race at McNulty inlet, and then biked around part of Lake Dunstan before returning to McNulty inlet for the start and end of the running leg.
The fastest individual girl in the swim triathlon was Reubyn Bisschops (St Kevins College) in 1hr 5min 19sec.
Alex Dodds (Mt Aspiring) had the fastest individual boys' swim triathlon time of 1hr 04min 51sec.
The first individual girl kayak triathlete home was Robin Piper (Dunstan High School) in 1hr 25min 23sec and the fastest boy individual kayak triathlete was Callum Geddes (Dunstan), in 1hr 17min 16sec.
