Callum McClusky has backed up his victory in the San Remo Channel Challenge with a win at the Cowes Classic on the weekend.

Organisers faced a nervous night on Friday, concerned about how the weather conditions would impact on the Cowes Classic – the final leg of this summer’s Bass Coast Series.

At 3am on Saturday morning they were studying the weather forecast.

With the Little Penguin Dash reaching a record number of 98 competitors in only its third year they had their fingers crossed the event could go ahead and then be followed by the 29th edition of the

Cowes Classic as the final leg of the 2022 Bass Coast Series.

Organisers were pleasantly surprised with how the day unfolded as the weather fined up and from 9am in the morning until after the races were finished, conditions were ideal in the water and around the course.

The cancellation of the Cape Paterson Aquathon meant the Bass Coast Series was conducted over two races – the San Remo Channel Challenge and the Cowes Classic.the prizemoney in the sixteen categories of the Bass Coast Series.

Callum McClusky, who also took out the Channel Challenge and has a world triathlete ranking of 116, was the overall winner from Nick Frisby of Williamstown and former Australian No 1 Junior, Tristan

Price, who just turned 18 and has now joined the Senior ranks. Callum’s next challenge is the Commonwealth Games qualifying race in April and we wish him all the best for that race.

Two elite triathletes, Chloe Bateup, and Tokyo Olympian, Rebecca Henderson, finished first and second in the Open Senior Women’s category after second and fourth place finishes at San Remo.

In the Local Men’s section, we saw Hamish Harrison repeat his San Remo victory with narrow margins to evergreens, Luke Plant and Mark Rowe, while Carina Royce’s third place finish behind Maddy  Button and Kelsey Buxton saw her take out the Bass Coast Series for Local Senior Females.

In the Junior section we saw local competitor, Luke Muir, win both the Open category and the Local category and take home the two Bass Coast Series prizes from Kuga Heenan and Max Arceo in the Locals and Marcus Rainey in the Open section.

In the Junior Female section Kemy Renyon again won convincingly from local girls, Abbey Clarke and McKenzie Wain, who fought out the Local Series category at both San Remo and Cowes.

The O/40 category saw a terrific effort from local male competitor, Justin Tilley, who easily won the Open and Local sections but also recorded the fastest time of all local competitors from all age groups.

In fact, Justin finished third overall behind McClusky and Frisby and that certainly was a great achievement. Local Kris Harris was again runner-up with Bill Barry not far behind.

The O/40 Female section also saw a clean sweep of podium finishes by local girls, Debbi Mahon, Emma Moore and Kirsty Harris. We certainly have a fit bunch of Over 40s in the Bass Coast Shire.

The Veterans Section (O/50s) once again saw an intense competition between local Rob Fleisner, and regular visitor Aurel Wachter, finishing only seconds apart with Rob reversing the result from San Remo. That resulted in our very first tie in the Bass Coast Series. Andy Chisholm also had his second podium finish of the series.

In the Veteran Female section, regular visitor, Janice Stephens, took out the Cowes race and the Open Series Award, while local girls, Rebecca Fincher and Suzie Herrington, managed to give us a second tied result for the Local Women’s section.

A well-attended Presentation ceremony at the North Pier Hotel was led by Mayor Cr Michael Whelan and football club luminaries, John Weston, Kaye Beaton and Simon Manning.

They are all looking forward to the 30th running of the Cowes Classic next year.

Thanks were passed on to all of the sponsors of each event who have made the Bass Coast series possible, especially Bass Coast Shire Council.