Weekend 1 (August 14th – 15th)
Starting in Sudbury, on August 14th at the Ontario Summer Games Triathlon, Samantha Klus, Elyse Charrier, Alycia Fowler McKeown, Katie McGrath and Alex Maxwell each swam 600m, biked for 16 km, and finished their event with a 4 km run. In her category, Sam placed 9th overall of 49, and was the 2nd woman overall (9th overall in the swim and 2nd woman in the swim). Racing together, Elyse was 9th out of 25 women, Alycia 17th and Katie 22nd, while in the men’s category; Alex was 13th out of 25 men. Congrats all!
The same day, Matt Vierula competed in Quebec’s Drummondville Triathlon, in the Elite category – placing 7th overall out of 49, and finishing in the top 10 overall in the swim portion. Congratulations Matt!
On the 15th, both Paul Macaneney and Joanna Brown headed down to the Thousand Island Triathlon/Duathlon and Relay event. What a great day for these two athletes! Paul placed 3rd of 126 overall, and was 3rd overall in the swim portion of his Olympic distance event, while Joanna in the Sprint Triathlon event finished 11th overall of 122 athletes, was 2nd overall in the swim, and won the event for the women! Congratulations on this achievement Paul and Joanna.
Weekend 2 – August 21-22nd
This was another action-packed two-days with competition underway for 11 of our athletes.
Both Joanna Brown and Matt Vierula having competed the previous weekend, then headed off to the west coast on August 21rst for the Kelowna Apple Triathlon, which was also the Canadian National Championships. Joanna, competing in the Junior Elite division, came out of the water in 10th position (in a pack of the top swimmers), and went on to finish first in a very exciting close race! Matt, competing in the Men’s Open category then followed, placing 32nd out of 64 in open (31rst in the swim), 11th in the under 23 category, and was the 6th Canadian to finish in the under 23 category. Congratulations to Joanna and Matt on these impressive results!
Moving south and across the border, there was more to celebrate and motivate our four athletes who competed in the New Hampshire Timberman Half Ironman race!
Sara Domina had a stellar performance, as the top placing non-professional! Sara was 9th overall in the triathlon of 869 athletes, and 15th in the swim, while in her age category, of the 163 athletes she was first overall, and 5th in the swim!
While team mates Ryan Grant, Garret De Jong and Shawn Heij also scored a day of personal bests and strong placements. Shawn had a best ever performance including a two-minute improvement in his swim, while of 1864 competitors Ryan placed a thrilling 11th, finishing 94th in the swim (18th in the swim pro category). Garrett also had a successful event placing 2nd in his age category of 35 athletes (4th in swim) and finishing 37th overall (74th in swim) of the 1864 participants. A truly motivational and memorable day for this group!
Travelling south, but not crossing the border, it was another wonderful day for five more of our athletes who competed in the Cornwall Triathlon.
In the Sprint Triathlon event, Alex Maxwell placed 8th of 105 competitors overall, was 5th in the swim, and was 4th in the swim in the 19 and under category, while one of our newest members, Iain Baxter was 26th overall in the swim, and 1st overall in his age category!
Meanwhile, three other ROCS teammates competed in the Olympic Triathlon event, with great results! Jamie Stephenson was 1st overall (of 75 athletes), 1st in the swim, and 1rst in the men’s 30-39 category. Ryan Cain was 2nd overall, 8th overall in the swim and first in the men’s 20-29 age category, while despite a “flat tire”, Dave Markin, placed 21rst overall, with a 7th overall placing in the swim!
Congratulations fellows!