Partner's fears turn to horror
Katey Gibb went to bed on Friday night after ending a 10-minute phone conversation with her boyfriend Brynt McSwain by telling him to "ride safe" on his way to meet her the next morning for a pedal through the Perth Hills.
Truth was, she knew he always did and expected it would be no different that morning for the aviation firefighter after he finished his shift at Perth Airport.
"He always wore bright colours, he always had his helmet on . . . everything was always done to perfection," the dual WA champion triathlete said.
PLEA FOR END TO CYCLING CARNAGE | OSBORNE PARK CYCLIST IN CRASH WITH CAR
The fastidious Mr McSwain had vacuumed their suburban Perth home's floors, mopped them and left a dish of spaghetti bolognese in the fridge.
Life was close to perfect.
But sitting at a Kalamunda Road roundabout and with several text messages going unanswered, Ms Gibb's first thoughts that he had either been caught up at work or had bike problems soon turned darker.
Katey Gibb and Brynt McSwain.
She rode back home with her worries growing and a call to his work revealed nothing amiss.
Then, after deciding to drive back to the route he should have taken, a radio report revealed the death of a 31-year-old cyclist who had been hit by a car in Welshpool and she immediately felt "that sick feeling" that her life was about to change for ever.
Frantic calls to police and "all the hospitals in Perth" were fruitless before finally Mr McSwain's mother Snow got a call from her Geraldton-based son, a policeman, who relayed the devastating news.
The hug and kiss Ms Gibb had shared with her boyfriend on Thursday morning would be their last.
"They all say when you reach your 30s your life starts getting on track and he was heading in the right direction," Ms Gibb, 27, said. "He'd found that niche he'd been looking for, he was really happy."
The vehicle involved in the alleged hit-and-run was discovered on the side of the freeway.
Ms Gibb said it was a classic case of love at first sight with Mr McSwain after they met at a group running session nearly six years ago, even though he had not plucked up the courage to ask Ms Gibbs out until his sister had "Facebook stalked" her to get her phone number.
Their union looked set in the near future to follow the lead of three other couples in the Front Runner training group, who had married. "We used to call it the Front Runner dating agency," she laughed. "We just worked so well together because we were complete opposites."
Mr McSwain was the second of five siblings and had taken to little athletics at the age of 10 before progressing to triathlons six years later. Poignantly, his shattered mum yesterday recalled how she would never tell him to be careful when riding on the road, for concern she would only feed more fear.
Katey Gibb and Brynt McSwain competing in the WA State Duathlon Championships at Champion Lakes.
"I just never, ever thought it would happen - I'm just numb with it all," she said. "When I see a cyclist on the road, I just love seeing people out there doing it."
Members of WA's triathlete community described Mr McSwain as a freakish talent.
He made a return to competition only two Sundays ago in the WA Duathlon Championships after sacrificing two years to cement his firefighter job.
Ms Gibb vowed to compete in the 70.3 Ironman event in Mandurah on November 9 as a tribute to her boyfriend, who had also planned to do the event.
