72 photos from the Byron Bay Triathlon

PHOTO GALLERY: The 24th Byron Bay Triathlon tested more than 1000 competitors to swim, ride and run a course from Main Beach to Suffolk Park and back.

Courtney Gilfillan excited after winning the Olympic individual division. Picture: Amber Gibson

"I WAS really determined to get the win today," Courtney Gilfillan said after taking out the women's Olympic individual division at the Byron Bay Triathlon on Saturday.

"I am local to here and I've never taken the win at Byron in my professional career.

"I have always been the bridesmaid ... it was really important to me more than anything."

Ms Gilfillan grew up at Tuntable Creek near The Channon and has been competing in triathlons professionally in Europe and Asia for 10 years.

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The 24th Byron Bay Triathlon tested more than 1000 competitors across six divisions to swim, ride and run a course from Main Beach to Suffolk Park and back.

"I feel I did really well in all three aside from my sighting in the swim; I missed one of the buoys so I lost about a minute in that swim but still led it out," she said.

"I'm backing my swim today as the strongest in the field and the bike I knew I had to push really hard.

"There were a lot of strong long course riders out there today but then I back my run any day of the week.

"I am happy overall. I only let up and let myself enjoy it at the end with 2km to go because you never know, it's racing."

Charlie Quin, from the Gold Coast won the men's Olympic individual division, beating local favourite, Matt Slee of Suffolk Park.

"It was a really hard race, I was coming for a training race to see where my fitness was at and it ended up being a hard race," Quin said.

"The bike was on the whole way, Matt and a few of the other boys were coming from behind so Lindsey (Lawry) and I were tyring to hold them off.

"They caught us with about 5km to go so we got ready to have a really fast run. It was good, it could have been better, but I'm happy with the win."

"It's sort of a bit of a mind game trying to stay positive and not get too stressed about the others coming behind."

"I'm getting ready to go to race in China and Japan in about eight weeks.

"It wasn't as hot as it could have been so it was really nice actually. The water was a beautiful temperature but the bike was really windy, so that made it hard race."

Event organiser Nicola Farquhar said the triathlon was a community event that drew people all the way from Victoria to Byron, and encouraged kids to participate.