Roberts led from start to finish. “I knew I needed a big gap going into the bike as and then I needed to take the first 2 laps easy and let the rest of the field chase. That climb in the middle of the cycle leg had a real sting in it and we needed to start conservatively. But if you are chasing, you can’t really go conservatively and that’s what played into my hands,” said Roberts after crossing the line in 2:20;35.

Roberts was out of the water first covering the two laps of 750m each (the swim is 1500m) in 20:27 with team mate Vicky van der Merwe (BSG/HPC) second, 42seconds behind and young Carlyn Fisher (SSMU sponsored athlete and competing for the first time as an elite) 5 seconds behind her. The chasing pack of Riana De Lange, Lauren Dance, Carla Germishuys (SSMU sponsored athlete) and Andrea Steyn (SSMU sponsored athlete) were just under 2 minutes behind race leader Roberts.

Roberts started the cycle leg conservatively but was able to open 5 seconds on Fisher who had passed Vicky van der Merwe at the start of the second lap of the cycle route. Working together, Andrea Steyn and Carla Germishuys were still two minutes down on Roberts.

By the start of lap 3 of the 5 lap curcuit, Andrea Steyn was riding with Carlyn Fisher and was now only 1 minute 3 seconds behind Roberts, but that monstrous effort could well have cost her as by the start of lap 4, Roberts had opened a 2:34 gap over Steyn and at the start of the final lap that gap had opened to 3min17sec. There was no way she was going to be able to pull that margin back over the final 10km run.

In fact so much had Steyn put in to try and catch Roberts on the cycle, that she had nothing left on the run and Roberts was able to open a further 3 minutes over her.

Roberts won in 2:20;35 with Steyn crossing the line in 2:28;16 and Carla Germishuys rounding out the top three with a time of 2:31;06. Carlyn Fisher in her first outing in the elite category finished a creditable 4^th (2:31;49)

Women results
1 Kate Roberts 20:27(swim)  01:17:41 (bike)  40:41 (run) 02:20:35 (overall)
2 Andrea Steyn 22:26 (swim) 01:19:56 (bike) 44:09 (run) 02:28:16 (overall)
3 Carla Germishuys 22:26 (swim) 01:22:40 (bike)  44:16 (run) 02:31:06 (overall)