Athletes take to the sea and road in Lions Club Triathlon
Jul 30, 2023
Participants in the Mattapoisett Lions Club Triathlon swim toward a buoy in the first leg of the race on Sunday, July 30. Photos by Sawyer Smook-Pollitt
Tommaso Manetti, right, and another racer are the first to enter the water.
Racers ditch their wetsuits and goggles and pick up their bikes for the second leg of the race.
A racer makes her way to the start of the cycling portion.
Three bicyclists embark on the race.
Racers of all ages took on the triathlon.
MATTAPOISETT — Athletes equipped with bathing suits, bicycles and running shoes gathered at the Mattapoisett Town Beach for the Lions Club annual Triathlon on Sunday, July 30.
The three-part race tasked athletes with swimming .25 miles, biking 10 miles and running a final 3.1 miles.
According to Mattapoisett Lions Club member Rob Haley, who organized the race, Sunday’s weather was good for the over 150 racers who registered.
“Online registrants were at 156 and there were more people registering this morning,” he said. “And that’s more money for charity.”
Haley has been running the Lions Club triathlon for nine years, and in that time he has gotten a lot of experience organizing the race.
“All the work was done this morning, wake up at five-thirty, start laying the course out,” he said. “For a couple hours of work — I’m always amazed because I’m home eating lunch at twelve.”
And that work paid off as the racers dove into Mattapoisett Harbor.
Somerville resident Tommaso Manetti was the first out of the water, the second to dismount his bike and the first to cross the finish line with a time of 53:57.
“It was nice to have someone to chase [on the run],” he said. “Sometimes when I race I’m the first off the bike so it’s kind of daunting, but I had someone in front of me to motivate me.”
This was Manetti’s second time participating in the Lions Club Triathlon, he first competed in the race four years ago.
Manetti ran with Mattapoisett resident Sydney Leveckis, who finished first in the age 25-29 female category with a time of 1:09:23. The pair also ran together as classmates at Northeastern University.
“We’re both on the triathlon team at Northeastern and we like to do races where each of us are from,” he said. “We’ll host each other.”
Suzanne Shroba stood on the sidelines cheering on her daughter, Leveckis, and Manetti.
“They’re friends for life,” she said of the pair.
The top three male finishers were Manetti, Kyle Thetonia with a time of 54:36 and Marvin Wang with a time of 57:29.
The top three female finishers were Julie Gallagher with a time of 57:31, Emily Cluck with a time of 58:35 and Rebecca Padera with a time of 59:00.
A full list of racers and their scores can be found online at https://my.raceresult.com/254294/results.
