MONDAY MORNING

TL, baby kate, CT (and enough baby gear to start a home daycare)

Some odds & ends from the weekend:

A few of the athletes raced the Niagara sprint on Sunday. The race was close to home for me, so I packed baby Kate into the car and headed to Grimsby for my first opportunity to see TL and AD race this year. Solid race organization (as usual), and good to catch up with Mitch & Janet Fraser and a whole bunch of great people I've met in the sport over the last 15+ years - you guys all look happy, fit and fast. Congrats to Karsten Madsen for the overall win - he took a risk with a hard bike effort and brought it home in the heat. Alexander Hinton finished off his season with 3rd place overall, and fastest run split. Adriano had a solid effort across the board, for 5th overall. Tom Lokody was first out of the water, but had a hard fall in the first corner. He's a bit banged up, but we're in better shape than last year at this time when his arm was in a cast. Juniors Johnny Rasmussen (6th overall), and Taylor Reid (8th overall) were comfortably in the top 10, for a total of four junior males in the top 8 overall. Love it. In the Junior women's race, Pauline Skowron took first, with Sarah Rasmussen 2nd.

Karsten, Taylor and Pauline train and race with C3. John and Sarah Rasmussen train and race with Dan McKerral.

Meanwhile in Windsor, there was some strong racing in the 40+ degree heat. California's Chris Foster won the mens' race, and Tereza Macel dominated the women's race. PTC'er Angela Quick had a good race for 4th. James caught a bug before the race - he gave the swim and bike a go, but retired to fight another day. And Tony Smucler raced - maybe the beginnings of a return to form for a top junior from a few years ago?

Finally, we're in the home stretch before the 2009 Canada Summer Games (Summerside, PEI), and the 2009 Canadian U23/Elite National Championships (Kelown, BC). Team Ontario has released their media guide with sport info and athlete profiles for each sport. I haven't been through the whole thing yet, but Ian Donald's picture (page 76) must be one of the top contenders for the "serial killer mugshot" award. But he's really a nice guy. Honest.