“I did the bike ride the day before and it was headwind all the way,” Liz said.

But once the race started she was in the groove, matching it with men’s winner Connor McKay in the 800m swim leg.

“Liz came out of the water with me and I just tried to put the hammer down straight away and make sure that she couldn’t keep up with me hopefully,” McKay said.

Blatchford said the Julia Creek tri lived up to its reputation for being so challenging.

“When I first heard about this race I thought ‘it’s a sprint, that won’t be hard,’ and I remember halfway through the bike leg looking down and I thought, ‘I really want to get off this bike right now’,” she said.

“The headwind was there and it felt like I was going up-hill and it was lonely out there, but the run through town was awesome – heaps of spectators and the musician playing in the middle of town was fantastic.”