With last year’s winner Dan Halksworth now retired and not in the field to defend his title, and 2017’s runner-up Ollie Turner away impressing at the Super League Triathlon qualification event in Poland, the door was open for Tanguy and he certainly took his chance.
Former Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimmer Simon Militis was ahead after the swim, but former Commonwealth Games cyclist Tanguy stormed through in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 2 minutes and 54 seconds.
‘It feels brilliant in front of such a great crowd, especially down here at the line,’ he told the Jersey Evening Post.
‘Once I’d started riding and seen some of the strong swimmers, I thought actually I’ve not had a bad swim here.
‘Last year was my first Jersey Tri, so I went into that with no expectations and then this one we’re a year on, my time’s four minutes quicker than last time, so I’m super chuffed.’
Dave Holmes was two minutes back in second spot. Meanwhile, Silva overcame reigning Island Games and Jersey Triathlon champion Jo Gorrod to win the women’s race.
Gorrod had impressed in the first two stages, but Island Games track and field medallist Silva sped through on the run to register an unofficial time of 2 hr 16 min and 33 sec.
‘I’m really excited to win because so much has to come together in triathlon for you to pull out a performance,’ she said.
‘You come out of the swim and you don’t really know where [what position] you are but I had a couple of people shouting times at me. It’s really tempting to just smash the first part of the bike but you know you’re going to pay for it later on, so you really do have to keep your own race plan in mind.
‘I’ve never beaten Jo before and I’m in absolute awe of her. She’s sustained incredible performance after incredible performance and to beat her is amazing but I’m still in absolute awe of her.’
Gorrod was the second woman home, with her 2 hr 18 min more than four minutes down on her winning time on this course 12 months earlier.
In the Jersey Sprint event Scotland’s Lewis Strachan – who has family in the Island – was first over the line, with Gemma Dawkins taking the women’s title. Meanwhile, in the shorter Super Sprint Jack Kennedy and Ellie Farrow were the respective winners.
‘I was confident I was going to do well,’ said 15-year-old Kennedy, who competes in the British Youth Series and is already eyeing up the Olympic distance event in future.
‘It was a tough race and I didn’t enjoy the run too much because I worked hard on the bike and I paid for it.’
Full results will be published in the Jersey Evening Post later this week.
Gold Coast 2018 triathlete Ollie Turner gave his hopes of earning a Super League Jersey wildcard a considerable boost on Saturday, after finishing seventh overall in the million-dollar franchise’s first qualifying event. The 20-year-old ended in seventh in Friday’s Triple Mix in Poznan, before taking ninth in the Eliminator. The top five overall were awarded season-long contracts for the 2018/19 Championship series, which visits Jersey, Malta, Mallorca, Singapore and Australia.
