UPDATE A competitor in in the Targettrainig Sherwood Island Sprint Triathalon today was pulled from the water and CPR administered to the swimmer on the beach shorty after the event began, according to witnesses. He later died at Norwalk Hospital, according to a funeral home obituary.
Robert Hartline: died Monday at Norwalk Hospital. Contributed photo
A crew from Westport EMS was on standby for the event and responded to the man in distress on the East Beach. An ambulance transported the swimmer to Norwalk Hospital. Witnesses said he apparently suffered a medical complication while swimming, possibly a heart attack. He was brought to the beach by a kayak. No police escort boats or lifeguards were on the water as in many water sports events.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Environment, which oversees Sherwood Island State Park, said the man was a 62-year-old Wethersfield resident. An obituary from a Wallingford funeral home later identified him as Robert Hartline, a Navy veteran, who marked his 62nd birthday on Saturday.
It said he was an accomplished runner in the 1980s, having competed in the Boston Marathon.
The Westport event included a half-mile swim, a 13-mile bike course in the Greens Farms area, and a 3.1-mile run entirely within the confines of Sherwood Island.
The race, with a portion of the proceeds going to New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Pediatrics Department, is in its second year and was sponsored by Targettraining Westport, 772 Post Road East.
