WHEN Angus Argent-Smith carried just a 10 second advantage after the first swim leg in Friday's Bathurst Wallabies Inter Club Australia Day race it looked like a close battle might be unfolding.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
That notion was quickly put to bed once Argent-Smith began pedalling down Hereford Street.
The Bathurst triathlete had the rest of the field at his mercy by the end of the bike leg, and he held more than a three minute margin when he crossed the finish line in a time of 50 minutes and 14 seconds.
![Angus Argent-Smith was a cut above the field in the Bathurst Wallabies Inter Club Triathlon round. Pictures by Alexander Grant. Angus Argent-Smith was a cut above the field in the Bathurst Wallabies Inter Club Triathlon round. Pictures by Alexander Grant.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YpbCWLfGAstDHC22gJwdbm/a1519c0f-ea8b-499e-88b9-3e96372dd511.png/r0_0_1920_1079_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Bathurst's Nick North (53:30) and Mudgee's Matt Webster (53:33) were left to fight it out in sprint for second place while Orange duo Tim Robinson (54:15) and Josiah Dirs (54:33) rounded out the top five.
Argent-Smith, 16, became the youngest winner of the club's premier race, the Dave Carroll-Scott Memorial, last year at the age of 15 and has gone up another level since that success.
The Bathurst junior felt motivated to put everything he had into the bike leg after seeing his rivals emerge from the pool right behind him.
"I got swum down in the first swim so I just thought 'I'm going to go as hard as I can on this ride and see if I can stay in front'," he said.
"It wasn't until I came back out of the pool [for the second time] and saw some coming the other way that I realised what the gap was.
"I then knew I could cruise on the last run and I had it from there.
"I'm the type of racer who doesn't swim very well, so I know that if I can set myself up in a good spot out of the swim then I'm doing well."
Competitors started Friday's race in Peace Park, with the Australia Day race using a five-leg structure (2.5 kilometre run, 200 metre swim, 15km ride, 200m swim and 2.5km run).
Argent-Smith finished the first run leg in 8:15, giving him some breathing room over the chasing Orange pair of Robinson (8:39) and Dirs (8:44).
A strong opening swim leg from Dirs brought him back within 10 seconds of Argent-Smith as they re-entered transition but it would be as close as the Orange junior would get to the lead.
By the time Argent-Smith returned from his bike leg he'd built up almost three and a half minutes advantage over nearest competitor Webster.
Such was his lead that Webster was the only person to return from the bike leg by the time Argent-Smith had emerged from the pool for a second time.
Argent-Smith turns his attention now towards taking on the top school talent from the state.
"Midway through February I've got NSW All Schools, and you can qualify for nationals through that, so I'm hoping to go well over there," he said.
The rest of the top 10 was filled out by Chris Hamilton (Inverell, 55:00), Tim Miller (Bathurst, 56:41), Richard Hobson (56:49), Sam Bayada (Orange, 58:17) and Thomas Hanrahan (Bathurst, 59:04).