Wednesday, August 19, 2009

DAY 5: SPRINT TRI


A bit late with this post, but here we go....

Tuesday we raced the first of two events, a draft-legal sprint triathlon. We had hot weather (30C+), moderate to strong winds, and some choppy water before the women's race (10am) with calmer water for the men's race (12pm). Water temp was 24C, well above the wetsuit cut-off.

In the women's race, all three Ontario women had strong swims, with Dorelle Hinton firmly in the lead pack, and Domi Jamnicky in the back of the lead pack. Joanna Brown swam very well to be in the chase pack, only 0:50" down on the leaders. Unfortunately, Domi lost her chip in the swim, and was stopped on the run to T1 by someone from the event timing company, who insisted she replace her chip. She lost time in the exchange, and ended up missing the front pack; frustrating for an athlete who made the front pack at Nationals. We protested after the race, but the competition jury decided not to adjust Domi's time. The front pack consisted of Dorelle, all three BC athletes, and Manitoba athletes Sarah-Anne Brault & Stevie Moore. They rode hard, while Domi fell to the chase pack which contained Joanna. Team tactics came into play as the Manitoba athlete in the chase pack worked to slow the pack down and open the gap between Joanna and the lead pack. To her credit, Joanna realized what was happening, and worked to limit the damage as much as possible. The BC team also employed a team strategy, keeping their three girls together through the bike. Out of T1, the difference between packs was ~0:50", and by T2 it was ~2:30; the chase pack lost ~:35" per lap. On to the run, the BC girls and Sarah-Anne Brault moved to the front. Dorelle started conservatively, and built through the run, in order to manage the heat. Alison Hooper (BC) pulled away in a decisive move on the 3rd lap to take the win over Sarah-Anne. Dorelle took back ~0:20" on Kyla Coates and Christine Rideour on the last lap of the run, finished 1 second behind 4th. Joanna lit up the run course with the fastest run time, coming home for 6th, and Domi stayed focused on her race for a strong 11th place finish.

In the men's race, Connor was comfortably in the front pack through the swim and into T1. Ian was on the end of the chase pack out of the swim, but he lost a few seconds in transition and missed the bike pack. A mechanical issue on the bike meant some further challenges for Ian, but he stayed focussed and raced hard. Tristan came out with a few athletes, and two of them quickly got organized for the ride. Through the bike, the biggest pack was the front pack of 6 (and later 5), containing the BC Team, Joel Howlett (who had a great race), Connor and Brad Piggot (NS). With the small field (29 men) and some good winds, the chasing riders were reduced to packs of 2-4, with several riding on their own, and the lead pack making time on the rest of the field. Phillips (BC) opened up a gap into T2, and pushed the run to stay clear through to the finish line. Connor ran with the pack for most of the first lap, before finding his rhythm at the half way mark, and coming home for 2nd ahead of Cole Stewart (BC) in 3rd. Ian and Tristan had their work cut out for them coming into T2, and both guys attacked the run right away, moving up to 12th and 15th, respectively, with the two fastest runs of the day. The run was likely short - we'll try to get an accurate measure before we leave (edit: I measured it this morning at 4.6k with a Garmin).

In addition to the podium, teams also score 'flag points' for the overall Canada Games title, awarded to the province with the most flag points at the end of the games. The top two athletes in each race scored points towards a team ranking. BC was the first team in both races. In the women's race, Manitoba was second, with Ontario third. In the men's race, Ontario was second, with Manitoba third.

At the end of the day, the BC team took 4 of the 6 medals - a great performance for a great team. We've had some fantastic battles against the BC men this year, and we've been chasing the BC girls (with everyone else) all season long. Team tactics were employed in both races to great effect. Although we didn't employ any team tactics for the races, it was a great experience for our athletes to compete in tactical races, and great preparation for future events.

The entire Ontario team raced very hard, and should be very proud of their efforts. Congrats to Connor on digging deep to earn a place on the podium and bring home Ontario's third medal of the Canada Summer Games.

Everyone is looking forward to an exciting relay event tomorrow.

A few links:

Team Ontario Newsletter with a short race summary.

Official Canada Games results.

Chip Timing results.

Globe and Mail article on Team BC performance and tactics.

Ottawa Citizen article about Ian, Tristan and Jo.

Times Colonist article on BC win.

Video report on race.



1 comment:

Hua said...

Hey Coach CT,

Congrats for the Ontario team! It's too bad that Domi couldn't get her time adjusted:(

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Director of Blogger Networks
hua [at] Wellsphere [dot] com