The Santa Barbara community was out in full effect for the 42nd Santa Barbara Triathlon on Saturday at East Beach.
1,100 athletes participated in the SB Triathlon and Beach Festival this year, including 503 first-time competitors and 15 who have been a part of the competition for more than 20 years.
Along with the athletes, hundreds of supporters were scattered throughout East Beach to cheer on friends and family members crossing the finish line.
“[It being the 42nd year] should tell you that it means something to the community,” co-director Elizabeth Farnan said. “The community also means something to the event, we can’t do it without them.
“They come out as an army of volunteers, and the athletes themselves come from the community.”
On top of the traditional long-course (1-mile swim, 34-mile bike and 10-mile run) and sprint triathlons (500-yard swim, 6-mile bike, 2-mile run), the beach festival portion of the event included multi-discipline events such as the duathlon (1-mile run, 6-mile bike, 2-mile run) and aquabike (1-mile swim, 34-mile bike).
In the long-course triathlon, Oxnard’s Nathan Cohen and Culver City’s Carly Johann finished in first place for the men and women, respectively.
Cohen, 25, finished with a time of 2:52:14 to finish atop the competition. Although he has been competing in triathlons for years, this was his first time at the Santa Barbara Triathlon.
“It was awesome,” Cohen said. “You couldn’t ask for a better day to run this race.”
In what was the longest triathlon Cohen has ever competed in, he said that the volunteers during the race helped him find success.
“I love the community here,” Cohen said. “They had such a good amount of volunteers throughout the course, which is really hard to find these days.
“At every turn, there were people there cheering and it was really sweet.”
Finishing behind Cohen were Antoine Francoeur of Foster City and Santa Barbara’s Jason Smith.
On the female side, meanwhile, Johann, 40, ended with a time of 3:19.31, which was good for 20th overall as well. Joining Johann on the podium was Jennifer Temperley of Manhattan Beach and Goleta’s own Hannah Holman.
Other overall winners throughout the day were Mike Shaffer (long-course aquabike), Cuyler Gabriel (co-ed sprint), Kelle Taylor (duathlon), Finn Riley (women-only sprint), Kyle Visin (5K), David Dupree (1-mile swim) and Jeff Hass (½-mile beach run).
“It was a great day to be on the beach,” Farnan said about the cloudless August morning. “This is an event that is rich in history within the sport and there isn’t a better location to host something like this.”
For full results from every event, go to https://www.santabarbaratriathlon.com/results/.
