PHOTO ESSAY

An update of some PTC results, random highlights in the triathlon community, and a few pics.  

Adrian Delmonte takes the award for biggest news of the week, and he had a solid race at the Niagara Sprint, too. Adrian finished 2nd overall with the fastest run. Everything is coming up Milhouse.

Adrian at Milton 2008

Dorelle Hinton won the Ontario Junior Provincial Championships in Gatineau. A great result in her 3rd draft legal race, as Dorelle looks forward to PEI and Kelowna.

Dorelle climbs Mt. Lemmon, Tucson, AZ

James Loaring put together a nice race at the Musselman ITU Pan Am Cup, finishing 7th. For an encore, he was the race director for the annual Loaring Triathlon this past weekend.  James, you are a machine.

L-R: Steve Hewick, Sean Bechtel, James Loaring 

Tom Lokody posted a solid age group win in Niagara, finishing 7th overall. Tom got his first taste of leading a race (lots of fun), but more importantly, demonstrated great patience and diligence in resolving a running injury that kept him from finishing Guelph Lake. Health -> Consistency -> Performance. Tom also gets kudos for lending out his electric fans to two of the juniors training in Hamilton with the C3 group - the fans kept them cool enough to have their first night of uninterrupted sleep this month.  You're a good man Charlie Brown.

TL looking strong at the Guelph Triathlon

Angela Quick had to deal with the disappointment of a DNF at provincials, after a stellar swim, due to the lingering effects of an illness. She proved that she's back on track with a win at the Niagara sprint (third overall). 

AQ Transition practice

In other news, I've been helping out the C3 group (in Hamilton) with one or two workouts a week. They are a great group - hard working, and very positive - I've had a lot of fun supporting them. If you were at Churchill Park in Hamilton this morning, you would have seen a group of them knocking out 1k repeats: 3:05 or better for the boys, and 3:30 or better for the girls. You can also catch them on Wednesdays in and around Gulliver's Lake, or on a podium near you soon.

L-R: Connor Hammond ('flexing'), Sean Bechtel, Karsten Madsen and Jason Wilson warm-up at Gulliver's Lake.

I've also been coaching a few workouts for the Guelph Marlins triathlon group. We have 12 athletes in the program, and we raced the Fergus KOS over the weekend. For many of the athletes, it was their first triathlon, but I'm sure it won't be their last. This is one tough group of 9-13 year olds, they are a blast to work with, and they pick up skills fast (they are featured in the recent set of skills videos). Congrats to the Marlins on their races in Fergus!

(Most of) The Marlins Crew - the older athletes were still out racing. 

Finally, some of you may be watching the Tour, but I've been enjoying the racing of three young Canadians on the World Cup scene. National Team member Kyle Jones has been on a European campaign of three races in three weeks, with some solid results. Despite his success over the past few years, Kyle is still a relative new-comer to World Cup racing, and it sounds like he's gained a lot of valuable experience from this trip. Go Kyle! 

Kyle Jones

In addition to Kyle, two other Canadian athletes have been on the start line at the recent World Cups - two complete rookies, in fact. Andrew Russell (BC) and Kerry Spearing (BC) got their first taste of World Cup racing, and made a good accounting of themselves.  Andrew has come a long way from the 2006 FISU World Champs, and Kerry is doing great, especially considering she returned to the sport of triathlon only 2 years ago after time off with a serious injury (health --> consistency --> performance).  Congrats to both athletes and their coaches (Patrick Kelly and Neil Harvey) on their continuing development.   In a few years, I hope to be writing about the World Cup debut of some upcoming talent from Ontario.

Andrew Russell makes the World Cup photo reel.

Kerry Spearing (right) into T2 in Hungary.

Dream Big. Train Smart.