Academic honours champion in adventure triathlon win
An Avondale academic’s win in an adventure triathlon not only promoted the health benefits of his research but also honoured the achievements of a champion.
Dr Darren Morton and 10-time winner Stu Adams shared $1500 in prize money for finishing together the 25th and possibly last Gloucester Mountain Man Tri Challenge on Sunday (September 13).
Morton trailed Adams by about one-and-a-half minutes after the 26-kilometre mountain bike leg. The two finished the 11-kilometre kayak paddle in first and second with Morton eventually catching Adams during the nine-kilometre run—Morton’s strongest leg.
“Stu just seemed to drop his head as I passed him,” says Morton, lead researcher in the Lifestyle Research Centre and a senior lecturer in health and exercise science at Avondale College of Higher Education. “So, I said, ‘If you promise not to sprint at the finish, let’s cross the line together.’” Adams agreed and the two shook hands as they ran. Morton kept the trophy as part of the agreement. “Stu said he had plenty at home.”
Morton won the triathlon at his first attempt but only after Adams crashed during the bike leg in 2013. “Stu’s a legend—he essentially owns the event,” says Morton, a sixth-place getter after a puncture and broken rudder this past year. “I felt honoured to cross the line with him.”
Named by The Wall Street Journal as the world’s “most-published authority” on the stitch, Morton published a book in 2013 to address the so-called inactivity crisis. Live More: Active opens with a section on how to sit less, move more, oxygenate and strengthen and stretch. It closes with a 21-day challenge that gives readers the principles and the strategies to enact behaviour change. Said Darren during the launch: “The world is full of people who know what to do but just don’t do what they know.”
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