Melissa Mertens won all her triathlon categories this season

Coming into Sunday's event, Mertens had won the previous three 40-49 female triathlons across the series but was yet to finish as the fastest female overall.

Unfortunately for the Dubbo triathlete, she finished just seven seconds off winner Halle Potter from Mudgee who came home with a time of 59 minutes and 51 seconds.

For Mertens, she wasn't too disappointed about finishing second for the event.

"It wasn't too bad, it was pretty good today and the weather held off," he said.

"There was a little bit of rain on the ride which was nice and cool.

"It was a really good race, lots of people showed up and there was good support by Dubbo."

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Mertens' result was a testament to her hard work done away from competing and the triathlete has endured a busy past two months after competing in the Husky triathlon event just a few weeks ago.

However, Mertens admitted there is not many things better than racing at home.

"It was really nice, it's always good to race on your home course," he said.

"You have a bit of local knowledge, especially in the river.

"The river was really nice, it had a good flow so there were some pretty quick times.

"The road was pretty good for ride and there wasn't too much wind."

Mertens had an 11 second lead heading into the run before Potter overtook her and eventually ran away with victory.

For Mertens, she was just happy to even be close to Potter is less than half her age.

"I gave it a good shot but she just got me on the run," she said.

"The younger ones are always hard to beat."

Orange's Sophie Martin finished as the next best female behind Potter and Mertens as the trio placed 14^th through to 16^th respectively overall.

The Mudgee trio of Jacqueline Dunlop, Lauren Carr and Jackie Ohare were the next three females to finish the course, continuing the strong day their club had after some successful results in the men's categories.

Dubbo's Krissy Ukena finished third in the 30-39 female category while Catherine Fitzgerald and Kellie Reeves were also very competitive during the day.

Dubbo Hippos Triathlon Club will now turn their attention to the Super Sprint Handicap Day which is set to be held at Ollie Robins Oval on Sunday April 3. Anyone, regardless of experience levels, is welcome to attend that event and more information is on the club's Facebook page.

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