At the local Triathlon De Gatineau, ROCS/Bytown athlete Connor Byway was the sole participant, placing 8th overall (of 16 athletes), and 10th in the swim in the boys 13 and under category. While Shawn Heij, competing at the Olympic Distance Military event placed 24th out of 55, and was (an awesome) 5 minutes faster than last year in the swim portion. Congratulations Connor and Shawn!
Both Leslie Sanderson and David Markin competed in the Lake Placid Ford Ironman event with great results! Leslie was the 1st woman out of 707 athletes beating all the pros by over 2 minutes in the swim portion, and finished 14th overall in her 40-44 age division, out of 156 competitors! Dave was 9th in his division out of 291 athletes, 56th in the swim (out of 2307 athletes) and 11th out of 291 in the men 30-34 category. Congratulations Leslie and Dave on this outstanding achievement!
Garrett DeJong was the only club athlete to compete at the Subaru Muskoka Triathlon and Duathlon. In the Long Course Triathlon event Garrett placed 9th overall out of 353 competitors. He was 14th overall in the swim, and 2nd overall in his age category - congratulations Garrett on your success!
TRIATHLON MEMPHREMAGOG (July 25th, 2010)
Last Sunday, was a big day for nine Triathlon club members. It was the National Triathlon Championships, and in addition to the prestige of this event, it was also a qualifier for the Junior World Championships. Unfortunately, for some athletes, it turned into a day of confusion, followed by disqualifications, and eventually, re-instatements. It was anything but an ideal Nationals!
Twenty-one events were being run that day, and the water was a sea of orange blue-coloured buoys – staking out various courses. This turned out to be a problem for Alex Maxwell who was competing in the under 15 elite category. Alex, and a few others, followed a guide boat during the swim portion, which turned out to be an incorrect route. Alex had a solid performance, finishing 13th out of 44 in the swim, and was 11th out of 21 overall, but sadly this was not acknowledged due to a disqualification for not following the correct course.
Joanna Brown, in the under 19 sprint elite, also suffered this same problem in the run course, and was directed off the course, running an extra 600 meters. As she continued, Joanna ended up not only winning the event, but also qualifying for Junior Worlds, which is being held in Hungary this September.
Route confusion was not just confined to the mass of buoys in the water, as Ryan Cain found in the running portion of the event. Ryan, and a small group of others in the lead, were directed by a policeman and course official to take a particular route. It turned out this was not the intended course direction, although subsequently became the correct route after a later decision by the Course Director. Ryan finished the event in 3rd, but with a disqualification, that resulted in a protest. He and the others who were disqualified, waited all evening for the outcome, but it turned out that the committee to address protests wasn’t viable, so it wasn’t until Thursday of this week, that he learned his 3rd place position was reinstated. In addition to this very good news, the bronze medal finish also meant that he was now qualified for the World Ironman Championships.
Congratulations to Joanna and Ryan for your successful bid to earn a berth at the World Championships!
Fortunately, for the remaining 6 athletes, there was less extraneous drama at these Nationals.
Congratulations to:
Matt Vierula, competing in the men’s elite category for finishing 5th in the swim, and 4th overall in a field of 20.
Tristan Woodfine, competing in the under 17 sprint elite category, for placing 10th out of 18, and 15th in the swim.
Jade Gregory, competing in the under 19 elite women, for finishing 9th of 12 women, 10th in the swim.
Samantha Klus, competing in the under 15 girls elite category, for coming out of the water in 3rd and winning the event - 1st of 23 competitors!
Elyse Charrier, competiting in the under 15 girls elite division, finishing 12th out of 23 in swim, and placing 10th overall.
Alycia Fowler McKeown, competing in the under 15 girls elite group. Alicia was 21 out of 23 in the swim, and moved to a 16th place out of 23 overall.