June 15, 2014 – Pike Lake Saskatchewan  – In the first of four National Junior Series events Provincial Team member and Quest for Gold supported athlete, Samantha Klus showed her strength and grabs Ontario’s solo podium spot finishing 3rd.

Triathlon Ontario supported athletes racked up a number of top 10 finishes, including 4th (Myles Zagar – RTC Guelph) and 5^th (Oliver Blecher – C3) on the men’s side, and 3rd (Samantha Klus– Bytown Storm) and 6th place (Meagan Adams – Bytown Storm) .  Early Saturday morning with water temperature at a “balmy 16 degrees” and 10 degree air temp with 20k winds.  It promised to be an interesting start to the season.

Up first were the men, with the woman following 5 min behind.  Over  60 Junior men and almost 30 Junior women lined up on the beach for the 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run.

On the men’s side two Ontario athletes, Myles Zagar and Oliver Blecher exited the water first with a 15-20 second lead over a group of 6-7 other men.  The bike course was one loop out and back, with the wind, it would prove to be a tough ride.  “The pack caught us a little after the turnaround,” Blecher commented.  “We worked well together but it was windy and with about 7km to go they caught up.”  Zagar and Blecher were still first out of T2 but were subsequently caught by the eventual medalists Russel Pennock (AB), Xavier Gernier-Talaveria (QC) and Jeremy Briand (QC).   Over all, Ontario Junior men placed well with seven athletes in the top 20.

On the woman’s side we had fewer bodies but as impressive results leading off with a 3rd place finish by Samantha Klus. The Junior woman start time was just 5 min. after the men.  Leading out of the water by 20 sec was Elisabeth Boutin and Ashlyn Cortvrient,  the chase pack of 8-10 led by Samantha Klus, quickly caught the 2 leaders.  “We caught up to them pretty quickly,” said Klus.   “Then I just stuck to my race plan and kept the bike pace really high, it took its toll on my legs but we cracked the pack up before the turn around and I think we dropped 3-4 riders.”

The top three women were the first out of T2 and kept the run pace pretty solid, finishing in the order of Emy Legault (QC), Elisabeth Boutin (QC) and Samantha Klus (Ont).
In just her 4th Junior event, 16 year old, Meagan Adams had a breakthrough race finishing 6th over all.  After a very solid swim coming out with 7-8 other athletes,  Adams remarked after the race, “It was nice to finally get a chance to ride with some other people,” and with the days 3rd best run split (Junior Woman) she ran into the top ten quickly finishing in 6th spot over all.

DAY 2 RELAY’S

Triathlon Canada’s 2014 Junior Series has added the Team Relay concept to select Junior series events.  The relay program is a fun competitive way to increase race opportunities for our developing athletes.  The relay consists of a 250m swim, 7km bike and a 1600m run. Each team has 4 members (2 men, 2 women) each of whom must complete the full course.

Relays were scheduled for Sunday morning at 6:30am.  With over 20 teams of 4 it was going to be a fun day.   Ontario had 3 teams entered:

• Team One – Myles Zagar / Alec Jarvis / Samantha Klus / Meagan Adams

• Team Two – Garrick Lowean / Alex Maxwell / Danae Morris / Kiesha Besler (Saskatchewan)

• Team Three – Aaron Mohammadi / Jacob Jamnicky / Adian Zagar / Marty Whelan (all male team)

There were two all male teams (Ontario and BC) which were sent off 5 mins after the mixed teams.  The relay format is exciting, fun and very competitive.  With the shorter distances there is some strategy in forming teams and the order (girl-boy-girl-boy) in which you arrange your team.  Team One for Ontario was the only team we got to enter and then Triathlon Canada Officials took the extra athletes and decided the rest of the teams.

Ontario results were mixed.  Team One, which definitely had a chance for a medal, was a DNF (Alec Jarvis went into cold shock during the swim and after a bit of medical treatment he was fine with only a bruised ego).

Team 2 had a few bumps with a penalty and a really rough T1.

Team 3 (all men’s team) showed that a 5 min deficit was not too much to overcome, and while they could not qualify for a medal they all did a fantastic job moving through the field easily.

All in all the relays are an excellent addition to the series, providing more race opportunities, more experience, and a fun, exciting and relaxed event (there are no points attached to these races just bragging rights).  It allows us to get the athletes to mingle more and to take chances during a race, do things different, push harder or try new tactics without risking anything but your pride if it goes wrong.
Great weekend of racing congratulations to all the Ontario athletes and their clubs, coaches and parents for supporting them.

 

Greg Kealey is based out of Ottawa and is Triathlon Ontario’s Provincial Development Coach and Ontario’s Canada Summer Games coach for Triathlon.  He is also a member of Bytown Storm’s Development Team www.bytowntriathlon.com.

 

 Next Up: Quebec City Junior Elite Race – July13/14^th, 2014

                       

 

May 15, 2014 – The Triathlon Ontario Provincial Championships officially kicked off its outdoor season this past Saturday in the small Essex County community of Harrow, Ontario with the Iron Hawk Sprint Duathlon. The race offered a $3,000 prize purse which attracted some of the province’s best.  The start list promised a blazing fast race, and the results did not disappoint.  The race also doubled as a 2015 National Team Qualifier for the World Championships in Adelaide, Australia. 

 On the men’s side, Quest for Gold supported triathlete Austen and his twin brother Taylor Forbes set a hot early pace.  Other contenders Connor Darlington, Andrew Beardsall , Sjaan Gerth and hometown hero Lionel Sanders followed an early pace that hovered near 3:00/km.  The Forbes twins continued to establish themselves at the front throughout the first two lap run of approximately 5.25km, coming through the 5k mark in close to 15:00 flat before heading to the bikes.

On the bike, strong cyclists Sanders and Sean Bechtel used this leg to establish themselves at the front of the race, with Lionel stamping his claim on the leader’s position and Bechtel moving quickly through the field into 2nd place and staying there for the remainder of the race.  Beardsall’s day unfortunately ended at the 5k mark due to a mechanical, while Gerth and the Forbes’ held strong in the 3rd to 5th positions.

No one could catch Sanders over the final 2.5km run who brought home his first provincial title of the season in 56 minutes flat.  Bechtel, Gerth, Taylor and Austen Forbes all held their positions to round out the top 5.

The women’s race also boasted a local winner as Leamington’s Kirstie Kniaziew defeated Provincial Development Team member and Quest for Gold supported athlete Kirsten Vergara and Sadie Holmes on the strength of an excellent 35:54 bike split.  Kniaziew was able to keep pace with Vergara’s strong run splits, staying within 50 seconds after the first run and backing up her bike split by nearly matching Vergara’s closing run. Holmes rounded out the women’s top 3 with an equally strong 35:58 bike split, and was followed in the overall standings by Toronto’s Lauren Tucker and Brampton’s Jade Carrington. Kniaziew’s result was good enough for 20th in the overall race, as well as top honours in the women’s 40+ division.

Click here to read Jesse Bauer’s complete race report.

Special thanks to the Iron Hawk race organizers for putting on a fantastic event and the local crowd for their enthusiastic support.

Next stop on the Triathlon Ontario Championship schedule is back to back stops in Guelph.  First up is the Guelph Lake KOS on June 15th.  This is the first stop on the 2014 Ontario Youth Cup Series.

Followed by the Triathlon Ontario Club Championships and the final wild card qualifier for the Ontario Summer Games, both at Subaru Series’ Guelph Lake I, June 21 and 22.

 

                         

Newsletter Archive PDFs

November 2013 | December 2013 | January 2014 | February 2014 | March 2014 | April 2014| May 2014| June 2014

March 27, 2014 –  Triathlon Ontario announced the launching of its new club wear program today.  Through its partnership with Ian Feldman of Genumark, the program is designed to give clubs – big and small – the opportunity to source an extensive catalogue of club wear options at competitive prices from a trusted source.

Triathlon Ontario understands the value to a club when its members proudly display their club colours either at races, training sessions, or even in casual wear.  There is no doubt that clubs who have members wearing their club colours helps develop a sense of team spirit, increases visibility, thereby attracting more members and offers additional sponsorship and revenue generation opportunities.

While some clubs may already have some sort of customized club wear, often times it’s either limited, expensive and many don’t have any club wear at all.  With the objective of furthering club development across the province, Triathlon Ontario is assisting clubs with the challenges associated with small purchase orders, not knowing where to find competitive prices from a trusted source, or clubs being offered limited options.

Interested clubs can access the catalog of clothing options by clicking here.  For those that would like to place and order, have any questions about any of the products or are interested in something that may not be there, please contact Ian at [email protected] or 416-498-4334.

Best of luck to everyone for the 2014 season and we hope to see you at the Club Championships (new format just announced) at Guelph Lake I June 21/22!