Australian triathletes Jamie Huggett and Luke Bell have shared second place in a dramatic end to the inaugural 70.3 Ballarat event.
While German Michael Raelert was a clear winner of the half-Ironman distance race, the event director had to make a ruling on who finished next.
Also on Sunday, much-admired triathlete Belinda Granger raced for the last time in Australia at Challenge Shepparton over the same half-Ironman distance.
She finished fourth as fellow Australians Josh Amberger and Annabel Luxford took the titles.
In Ballarat, it initially looked like a clear-cut case of Huggett posting the second-fastest run leg and overcoming a deficit of more than five minutes to take second from Bell.
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But it then emerged that Bell was sent the wrong way during the run.
When an analysis of the race data showed Huggett and Bell would probably have had a sprint finish, the decision was taken to make second place a dead heat.
A week after dominating the Mandurah 70.3 race, Raelert was again in a class of his own and won the 1.9km swim, 90km cycle and 21.1km triathlon in three hours 48 minutes 33 seconds.
Huggett and Bell were given a finishing time of 3:57:33.
Canadian Melanie McQuaid had to miss Mandurah because of a chest infection, but she bounced back on Sunday to win in 4:19:40 - more than seven minutes up on Australian Madeleine Oldfield.
Poor weather made conditions tough at Ballarat and Shepparton.
Amberger overcame the wet roads to win Shepparton in 3:45:16, three minutes up on dual Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt.
Luxford dominated the women's race in 4:18:04, finishing more than eight minutes ahead of Kahlefeldt's Czech partner Radka Vodickova.
Australian Michelle Wu was next and then Granger, 43, closed out her last local race before retirement with a 4:33:58 finish.
Granger is one of Australian triathlon's most respected and popular figures.
Apart from an impressive race resume that featured the 2005 Challenge Roth title and four top-10 Hawaiian Ironman finishes, Granger has done more than most to promote the sport.
