The 2025 Game On! Ponte Vedra Beach Olympic and Sprint Triathlon was held at Mickler’s Landing on Sunday, May 18.
More than 230 athletes competed in the event with another 39 participating in the Duathlon (run, bike, run).
The triathlon featured both sprint and Olympic distances, and the weather was perfect at the start of the race for the swim segment, but by the time the run began the heat wave the area has been experiencing started to make its presence felt on athletes and spectators alike.
The triathlon course for the race featured a swim at Mickler’s Beach (.25 miles sprint, .93 miles Olympic), followed by a bike ride on A1A south (11 miles sprint, 24.8 Olympic), and lastly, a run up Ponte Vedra Boulevard (3.1 miles sprint, 6.2 miles Olympic).
In the women’s sprint triathlon race, an exciting showdown emerged when Wendy Fejfar put in the sixth quickest bike split overall in the sprint distance with an average speed of 22.8 mph to lead out of transition No. 2.
However, Ella Harmon would overcome the 37-second deficit to take the top step of the podium with a time of 1:08:58. In second place was Naomi Ventura with Wendy Fejfar rounding out the podium.
In the men’s sprint race, a similar race took shape with the winner, Ryan Buzby, seeing his nearly two-minute advantage after transition No. 1 being evaporated by a blistering bike split by Alex Brown who set the quickest time with an average speed of 25.2 mph.
However, Buzby’s scorching pace of 5:07 min/mile pace would overcome the nearly one-minute disadvantage at the end of the second transition to bring home the overall win with a time of 59:51.
Alex Brown came in second and Luke Klingenberg took the final step of the podium.
Staying with the men’s Olympic distance, Luis Ortiz led from start to finish with a winning time of 1:58:56.
With his best overall bike speed of 26.1 mph over the 24.8 miles, Ortiz had built up nearly a seven-minute cushion to second-place finisher John Richardson.
Richardson gave up a little bit of time compared to the third-place finisher Eric Lashway on the bike segment but left transition No. 2 with nearly a 40-second advantage.
Richardson would pull away on the run thanks to his second-best overall run pace of 6:15 min/mile.
Lashway was the only other athlete to break the 60-minute mark with the second overall quickest bike split at 24.8 mph.
However, it was the women’s Olympic distance that took the honors for the best race with first and second place covered by just six seconds.
The racing was close right from the go. After exiting transition No. 1, the top three finishers were within about one minute of each other.
Jennifer Sylva launched herself into the lead by three and a half minutes after she put in the fourth quickest bike split of all athletes competing at the Olympic distance with an average speed of 24.3 mph over the 24.8 mile bike course.
However, Andrea Richardson needed every bit of the 6.2 mile run course and fourth overall quickest run pace at 6:32 min/mile pace to eat into the advantage and take the top step of the podium.
Catherine Rueppel, who led after the first transition would round out the podium.
Congratulations to all the athletes who participated and a big thank to all of the volunteers for making it a great day.
The complete results can be found by going to www.secondwindtiming.com/results.
The next Game On! event will be in St. Augustine for another triathlon on July 27.
