Will Draper won the Microgaming Sprint Triathlon for the fourth year in succession and with a course record time at Ramsey last Saturday.

It was almost as if he was trying to prove a point to the Commonwealth Games selectors.

A few days earlier, the island’s best known multi-discipline exponent had been informed that he would only be a non-travelling reserve for the Games team heading to Birmingham this July.

Admittedly, last weekend’s event (and the one to be held at Sutton Park on Sunday, July 31) are sprint distance and Draper is ostensibly a longer distance man, but he proved once again that he is competitive at any distance.

He produced a 750-metre swim time of 10 minutes precisely, bettered only by women’s race winner Kiera Prentice (9.42) who originates from a swimming background.

Third out of the pool behind Draper was Andrew Isaac (10.07), then Charlie Swales (10.14) and Corrin Leeming (10.45) the man recognised as the most likely to challenge Draper.

But the latter was clearly pumped up and made the most of the favourable conditions to complete the 20km cycle, incorporating the villages of Bride and Andreas, in a cracking time of 26m 29s.

This was 1m 18s faster than Leeming, giving him a lead of 2m 03s heading into the five-kilometre run involving three laps of Mooragh Park lake and a section of North Shore Promenade.

Leeming is a stronger runner, but his time of 15m 51s for the final leg only pulled back 35s of Draper’s advantage, leaving him with a winning margin of 1m 28s. The latter has two back-to-back middle-distance triathlons coming up later this month.

Youth class winner Swales was second for a short while on the bike before being ousted by Leeming, but he comfortably held off the more experienced figure of Isaac for a deserved third place overall.

Matt Looker was fifth overall in front of leading veteran Jon McGowan, who edged clear of Chris Hewson on the run to secure sixth.

Prentice, like Swales still classified as a youth, rounded off a solid performance with a run of 24m 17s to finish 2m 13s ahead of Alison King, with Vicki Rawlinson a delighted third (out of 18 women) and 28th overall in a total field of 50 finishers.

A shorter swim of 400 metres was introduced for novice and first-time triathletes or less-confident swimmers. This was followed by the regular 20km cycle and 5km run.

The runaway winner was Jonathan Callow in a total time of 1hr 07m 32s, more than six minutes clear of Harry Kinley and Pete Dyer, with Clare Singleton the best of the women in 1:22.01.

Sunday morning’s team event (involving the full 750-metre swim) was won by MSR colleagues and friends swimmer Laura Kinley, cyclist Gianni and runner Shaun McEntee in a combined time of 55m 13s.

Alan’s Surprise Package initially led with a super-fast swim of 9m 16s by Ryan Fairclough. It was indeed a surprise that Epifani and Three Legs team cyclist Andy Bass were quicker than Sam Brand on the bike, dropping the latter’s team briefly to third.

Alan Corlett took over the reins for the final leg and produced the quickest run of the day to haul them back to second at the finish, with Hollie Quaye up against the stiffest opposition on the run for Three Legs.

Only one all-female team participated, Chafing the Dreams (Charlotte Sugden, Michelle and Helen Taylor) finishing 10th overall out of a strong entry of 27 teams.

Sprint Triathlon, Manx Tri Club, sponsored by Microgaming, Ramsey - Solos, Saturday (750m swim distance): 1, Will Draper 53min 54sec; 2, Corrin Leeming 55.22; 3, Charlie Swales 59.23; 4, Andrew Isaac 1:01.01; 5, Matt Looker 1:03.18; 6, Jon McGowan 1:04.05; 7, Chris Hewson 1:04.34; 8, Russell Collister 1:04.44; 9, Ian Rowley 1:04.51; 10, Graeme Nash 1:05.15; 11, James Wright 1:06.06; 12, Sam Quilleash 1:06.19; 13, Matthew Gold 1:06.34; 14, Dominic Dunwell 1:06.41; 15, Martyn Edwards 1:08.40; 16, Jeff Looker 1:10.00; 17, Kiera Prentice 1:10.24; 18, Mario Ricciardi 1:11.16; 19, Brandon Montgomery 1:12.16; 20, Andrew Roche 1:12.31; 21, Alison King 1:12.37; 22, Guy Wood 1:12.59; 23, Ross Charman 1:13.04; 24, Max Singer 1:13.26; 25, Nigel Davis 1:13.46; 26, Paul McGilvray 1:14.07; 27, Philip Cuthbert 1:14.35; 28, Vicki Rawlinson 1:15.47; 29, Philip Caine 1:16.13; 30, Caitlin Gelder 1:17.47; 31, Jade Zorab 1:18.17; 32, Nick Whitehouse 1:19.12; 33, John Wilson 1:19.19; 34, John Dunwell 1:22.06; 35, Carole Laporte 1:23.43; 36, Colin Peters 1:24.41; 37, Jenna Singer 1:24.55; 38, Tim Shallcross 1:25.39; 39, Fiona Gell 1:27.00; 40, Emma Skillicorn 1:27.06; 41, Laura Morris 1:27.14; 42, Charlotte Corlett 1:30.01; 43, Aurora Bakkevig 1:31.12; 44, Michelle Jamieson 1:32.32; 45, Lynn Murphy 1:33.20; 46, Diane Gallagher 1:33.33; 47, Laura Bryan 1:36.09; 48, Wendy Ranft-Gerber 1:36.16; 49, David Moore 1:37.47; 50, Erica Humphries 1:40.28.

Solo - Sprint Triathlon (400m swim distance): 1, Jonathan Callow 1h 07m 32s; 2, Harry Kinley 1:13.46; 3, Peter Dyer 1:14.29; 4, Tony Smith 1:18.31; 5, Clare Singleton 1:22.01; 6, Andrew Feeney 1:34.57; 7, Colette Corlett 1:38.21; 8, Jennifer Houghton 1:39.08.

Team - Sprint Triathlon (Sunday): 1, MSR and friend (Laura Kinley/Gianni Epifani/Shaun McEntee) 55m 13s; 2, Alan’s Surprise Package (Ryan Fairclough/Sam Brand/Alan Corlett) 56.40; 3, Three Legs (James Wright/Andy Bass/Hollie Quaye) 1:01.45; 4, Nothing too Serious (Rob Parker/Richard George/Nigel Quaye) 1:02.37; 5, Two duffers with an outboard! (Ruby Reynolds/Tufty Nash/Martyn Edwards) 1:03.24; 6, Tri Before You Buy (Andrew Isaac/David Cain/Jessica Cain) 1:03.45; 7, Babes That Tri (Charlotte Sugden/Emily Looker/Dawn Atherton) 1:04.14; 8, We Don’t Slow Down (Robert Kermode/Stephen Corlett/Adam Dooley) 1:04.18; 9, Manx Speed (Mario Ricciardi/John Barrett/Adam Wildblood) 1:05.41; 10, Chafing The Dreams (Charlotte Sugden/Michelle Gage/Helen Taylor) 1:05.51; 11, CrossFit Ramseian (Andy Crennell/Janette Morgan/Kristan King) 1:08.06; 12, The Expandables (James Cowin/Graham Delooze/Liam Parker) 1:08.38; 13, Amber Gaming (Jade Zorab/Ryan Jones/Phil Caine) 1:10.10; 14, A Prentice and 2 Apprentices (Kiera Prentice/Niall Prentice/Victoria Prentice) 1:12.06; 15, Be More Neil (Zack Bellhouse/Pete Dyer/Becca Greatbatch) 1:12.07; 16, Amber Gaming B Team (Matthew Gold/James Lees/Tom Collister) 1:12.07; 17, Tri a Flutter (Katie Callow/Gaynor Evans/Gaynor Evans) 1:13.24; 18, I’m tri-n my best (Cliodhna Swales/Phillip Swales/Charlie Swales) 1:14.13; 19, Easy Sunday Runners (Steve Oates/Steve Oates/Andrew Woodward) 1:16.28; 20, Marown Mums (Nicola Quaye/Mel Williamson/Emma McMullan) 1:16.30; 21, Splash, Flash and Dash (Rachel Smith/Cait Gelder/Katie Lawrence) 1:21.38; 22, Forgot my Sat Nav (Dee Gimbert/Gerry Knight/Kathleen Swain) 1:24.42; 23, Mysterious Maughold Mermaids (Charlotte Corlett/Marcelle Heidtman/Niamh Goodard) 1:24.59; 24, WTF [where’s the finish] (Sarah Hogan/Colin Peters/Audrey Butterworth) 1:25.05; 25, Team OAP 200 (Val Dudgeon/Eddie Fryer/Nigel Hendy) 1:25.38; 26, Lynda’s Looneys (Lynda Reid/Cherie Wernham/Pammie Parker) 1:45.42; 27, Less talking more tri-ing (Ciara Maher/Dawn Pugh/Sammy Macdonald) 1:49.54. Manx Timing Solutions