Owens, 24, claimed overall Olyfest honours in Warrnambool yesterday, finishing the 1.5-kilometre swim, 40km ride and 10km run in two hours and 10 minutes.

The Elite Triathlon Performance Australia professional won from Stephane Vander Bruggan, who was two minutes and 54 seconds behind.

“It’s good to have a good win,” Owens said. 

“It’s pretty overwhelming, especially on a tough course like this. But at the end of the day you just have to race hard and the results come and fortunately it did.

“I was third or fourth going into the run, so I was three-and-a-half minutes down and managed to catch the leader with four kilometres to go.

“Having the lead bike saying ‘you’re the lead male’ was an awesome feeling because I’d never had it before. I was just so happy.”

Owens arrived in Warrnambool on Saturday and had a quick look around the course, based around Blue Hole and the foreshore promenade.

He rated the Hopkins Point Road hill, which he had to tackle twice on the bike leg, as one of the toughest aspects of the race.

“I rode up it once and was like ‘yeah, that’s enough’ and then came for a swim,” he said of his practice run.

“It’s a lovely place. I am from the country in Western Australia, so it reminds me of being at home, just nice country people, so it was awesome.”

Owens has spent seven weeks in Victoria fine-tuning his craft and has completed a number of races.

The final year Curtain University physiotherapy student will return home in three weeks.

He is eager to take his triathlon career further after taking up the sport 3½ years ago.

Owens, who turned professional 18 months ago, is no stranger to elite sporting environments, having played basketball at state and national level as a junior before suffering stress fractures in his back.

“I called it quits in basketball, took three years off sport completely and then took up tri,” he said.

“It has been great. I did a year without being coached and then found Mat (Tippett) on Google and haven’t looked back since.”

Geelong athlete Sara Coulter claimed overall Olyfest female honours, backing up her win in Geelong over the same distance last month.

Coulter, 28, said she found the course “really hard”.

“I don’t know how they do the long one. I can’t imagine going up there two more times and having to do that run again,” she said.

Coulter is two years into her triathlon career and gave up netball to focus solely on her new passion.