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Over 180 children aged between six and 15 turned out for the first ever Puzzling World Junior Challenge Wanaka. The event kicked off the week long Challenge Wanaka Triathlon Festival in style with children and their families traveling from all over the region to take part.

Challenge Wanaka pro athlete and inaugural Challenge Wanaka winner, Luke Dragstra (CAN) was on hand to sign T-shirts, Radio Wanaka was pumping the tunes and everyone got a finishers shirt and prizes from Puzzling World. Many of the volunteers were athletes taking part in next weekend's iron distance race, supporting the next generation of triathletes. Challenge Wanaka race director, Victoria Murray-Orr, said she was hugely impressed, not only with how may children were taking part but also the great displays of good sportsmanship.

"All the kids were so amazing and everyone had a wonderful time – there are some really keen triathletes out there which is great to see," she said. "The best moments of the day were when we saw kids helping their friends finish the race, crossing the line hand in hand and supporting each other. Our event manager, Mike Johnston, did an amazing job on the course that was achievable for all age groups and it was a brilliant start to Challenge Wanaka 09."

Seven-year-old Liam Shepherd from Invercargill made short work of the first swim-bike-run of the day crossing the line first and taking out the boys’ race in 6-7 age group. Fastest girl was Queenstown's Jacque Lattimore (7). Both Liam and Jacque, together with the other age group winners from today, will run down the finish line chute carrying balloons behind next week’s winners of Challenge Wanaka. The fastest team was the Crusty Demons from Wanaka featuring Mitchell Evans (6), Ethan Kerr (7) and Fergus Reid (6).

Attention then turned to the 8-9 year olds who also did a 50m swim, 1km bike and 500m run. Tegan Buchanan (9) of Cromwell had an easy victory in first place while the fastest boy was Gregor Findlay (8) of Wanaka who came across the finish line just ahead of fastest team, The Cartoon Characters Rocks from Queenstown featuring Robyn Blackstock (8) and Amelia Hide (8).

The course lengthened for the largest age group, the 10-12 year olds, with the swim now 100m, the bike 3km and the run 1km. Casey Strachan (11) of Wanaka took out the race and the boys' title, followed by the fastest team, Wanaka's Three Amigos with Ellie Russell (11), Libby Tones (12) and Alex Thomas (11). Twelve-year-old Georgia Vessey from Alexandra won the girls’ race.

The final race of the day was for the 13-15 year olds with a 200m swim, 5km bike and 2km run. Queenstown's Jaime Kruijer (14) was streaks ahead of the rest of the field and, winning the race and the girls' title. Behind her was Team Jam with Amelia Pasco (11) from Wanaka, Jessie Taylor (13) and Margie Anderson (13) both from Dunedin, followed by the fastest boy, Lochy Brown (13) from Cromwell.