OUT-of-towners stealing the show has been a dominant theme in the 2009-10 Western Suburbs Triathlon Club's race series.
Little changed in the latest installment with Eltham tri-club teammates Paul Attard and Simon Carey claiming a one-two finish in the fourth race of the summer.
Locals who gathered at the Altona Life Saving Club to see the athletes swim 750 metres, ride 18.5 kilometres and run five kilometres would have walked away impressed with the performance of Attard, who completed the course in a sizzling time of 54.48 minutes.
While the race is minor on his season schedule, the chance to mix it and beat luckless three-time ITU triathlon world champion Peter Robertson will live long in 25-year-old Attard's memory. "The particular race is part of my training," he said.
"It's always good to beat someone like that.
"The bike leg was where I was always going to beat him and he ended up getting a puncture.
"I had already built up a two-minute lead on him before the puncture so it was a good win.
"But, you don't know where he's at with his training and how seriously he was taking it."
Attard used the race as a stepping stone for a tilt at bigger races in the United States in the middle of this year.
Robertson - a world champion at ITU events in Edmonton 2001, Queenstown 2003 and Gamagori 2005 - was in town to warm up for the Oceania championships to be hosted by New Zealand.
The 34-year-old Melburnian has represented Australia at two Olympic Games and was a bronze medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
WSTC media liaison Jeff Bunting said it was a coup to have one of the great triathletes in town to strutt his stuff on the Altona foreshore.
"To put it into perspective, it's just like having Ricky Ponting at a sub-district game," he said.
Not for the first time this summer, the best of the locals was Chris Munro.
The Ferguson Street chiropractor has landed on the podium in every race this season.
WSTC president Peter Whyte marvels at his consistency.
"Chris is a gifted athlete who has been club champion for a number of years," he said.
"He's genuinely one of the nice guys at the club and he helped out with the organisation of the kids race."
The WSTC is moving forward with Whyte at the helm. The 47-year-old engineer joined the club with a two-year plan.
For starters, he wanted to 'consolidate' the club's standing in the triathlon community and appoint the people he believed could drive it forward.
"I had been associated with the club for a number of years so I had a good handle on its culture," he said. "The first aim was to basically consolidate and I wanted to put together a great team, young and old."
Phase two is on the horizon.
One of the pressing questions for Whyte and his board is whether to upsize the club.
For 26 years, it has successfully staged its races with positive feedback.
But, could the club get bigger?
"Next year I want to look into the future of the WSTC," Whyte said. "We really have to look at where we're going to go in the future."
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