MARIGOT--St. Martin’s top triathlete Gregoire Pigeon had no trouble winning the Grand Case Triathlon on Sunday organised by SXM Tri Academie, clinching his third win in a row since September after dominating at the Aquathlon, the Foulées de la Rentrée, and now at Sunday’s event.
He was third out of the water (14:03) for the 750-metre swim from Petit Plage, behind Boris Villemin (13:19) and the fastest swimmer from the Connected Team (12:22) but got back into the lead with an excellent 20K bike ride between Grand Case and Hope Estate. He then cruised to victory on the run segment to finish in the best time of 1:05:22.
Max Kruzsewska finished in second place overall in 1:08:50 and third place went to Diaz Xavier in 1:10:10.
Caroline Deplanque was the overall female winner completing the distance in 1:18:30 followed by Céline Verdonck second in 1:31:02 and third Adeline Georges in 1:33:35.
St. Maarten Roadrunners President Krispijn Teunissen who also competes for SXM Tri Academie ran a respectable race for 15th overall in 1:18:59 while his son Meks Teunissen was third overall in the children’s event finishing in 19:20. The children completed a shorter course which was won by Tao Gentil in 18:10.
Pigeon is in great shape for the Half Ironman World Championships on October 29 in St. George, Utah, USA, which he qualified for in Puerto Rico two months ago. He will be competing against the best of the world and some 2,000 tri-athletes. At this level though, he’s realistic to know more or less where he will finish but its more about the experience and the fun.
“I did do it before in 2015 finishing in 620th place out of 2,000 athletes but my goal is to place better this year. After October I will probably do another Half Ironman in the Spring of 2023,”he said.
The half-ironman distances are 1.9K swim, 90K bike and a 21K run
He will be joined at the Half Ironman by the St. Barths triathletes Stéphane Lenoir, Fabien Husson, Jean-Marc Outil and Nicolas Doublecourt and François Delporte from St. Martin.
Some 60 adults and 18 children participated in the triathlon on Sunday.
