Dubbo Hippos Triathlon Club were well represented on the south coast a few weeks ago

A large group of the Dubbo Hippos Triathlon Club headed to the South Coast just a few weeks ago but Mel Mertens, Ben Orford and the Women's Team were the stars.

Mertens and Orford both qualified for the Australian team after finishing in the top five following their respective aquabike events while the women's team took out the title.

"We had about 10 or 11 people travel over there from Dubbo," he said.

"Only one of us did the big one this year which was Greg Milburn in the 25-29 men's and it was his first attempt at that distance.

"He did well, others took a step back and decided to do the aquabike which is the big Husky but with no run leg."

With more than a year before the World Championships in Townsville, Orford said he was pretty proud of the club's results.

"It's sort of the B-Grade triathlon for age groupers I guess but we did really well," he said.

"Melissa took second place in the women's 45-49 and I came fifth in the men's 40-44 which happens to be a World Championships qualifying event.

"If you come top five in your particular event then you get the opportunity to represent Australia at the World Championships in 2024.

"The top five in the triathlon and aquabike events both get selected but there are a few more events to go also."

READ ALSO:

Katie Lyons, Kellie Reeves and George Barrott-Brown combined for the women's team event, taking out first place but Orford admitted they weren't sure of the result at the time.

"They didn't feel confident enough about doing the whole race on their own so the teamed up," he said.

"One did the swim, one did the run and one was on the bike, they won the women's team event.

"It was a bit unexpected, I don't think that they realised they were in the lead because it's mixed in with the age group and individuals.

"But it turned out that they were the quickest female team there so that was really good."

Dubbo has struggled during the Central West Interclub Series but now will host the final round of the season with Orford hoping for a big turnout.

"Now our attention turns to the interclub event this week," he said.

"We are currently last on the point score because we haven't turned up in big numbers to any events but we've had various reasons for that.

"But we are not too far behind Cowra, then we are 10 points behind Bathurst if we have a good show at our home event which we should got well in.

"First and second are pretty much sorted but the order isn't."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: