MATT Chapman was the winner of this year’s annual Crystal Palace triathlon on Sunday.

The South London Harriers member led the 540-strong field home Club in 1hr05m52s ahead of Simon Truett from Sevenoaks Tri Club in 1hr07m16s.

Ironically both of the top two were among the last 10 to start the race, making their finishing places all the more remarkable.

The early runners laid down challenging times, with the remaining eight of the top 10 finishers from those who started in the first five minutes, including four from host club Crystal Palace Triathletes. Another late starter was Parys Edwards from Ful-on-Tri who improved on her time last year to convincingly take first female again in 1hr08m47s.

Crystal Palace duo Suse Fairfax and Katie Crowe finished second and third females, sealing the home club’s victory in the London league competition.

The vet (40+) honours went to Robert Baker from Greenwich Tritons and Madelaine Lee-Smith, whilst the super-vet (50+) winners were Tim Wort and Olivia Hetreed from Tri London.

For the first time the junior age-group (17 to 19 years) was formally recognised and Wim Geberbauer from CPT took the trophy.

Special commendation must go to Dominic Mander completing the course on a Boris bike.

The children’s events were as competitive as ever, with a set of completely new winners in all the tristar races, apart from the 13-14 year girls where Evangeline Foster triumphed again, taking more than a minute off last year’s time.

Youth (15/16y): Marcus Francis (Optima Racing Team) and Greta Sharp (CPT).

Tristar 3 (13/14y): Alex Yee (CPT) and Evangeline Foster.

Tristar 2 (11/12y): Reef Boericke (Optima Racing Team) and Sinead Clark (East Essex Tri Club).

Tristar 1 (9/10y): Oscar Cowley-Andrea and Imogen Meers.

Tristarts (8y): Joshua Solly and Lili Jenkins (CPT).

The event is organised and run by Crystal Palace Triathletes and this year they particularly wanted to remember the extremely talented young triathlete Jack Boericke.

Jack stamped his mark on last year’s youth race with a convincing win for the Optima Racing Team.

One pound from every 2012 entry, combined with monies saved from entrants electing not to have a race t-shirt, has enabled CPT to donate £1000 to the Jack Boericke Foundation established in his memory.

Follow us on Twitter @NewsShopperSprt