PHOTO ESSAY

I had the chance to get to OFSAA XC this year, so I packed up my daughter Kate, picked up Ian and Connor in Guelph, and headed to Boyd Conservation Area for the races.

Ian's comment less than 2 minutes before this picture was taken: "Wow, Kate falls asleep really fast."



The weather was great; low wind, sunny skies and 14 degrees. A perfect Fall day:



While Ian and Conner were off buying OFSAA gear, and trying to enter themselves in the senior boys race, I toured around the finish line and met up with a lot of familiar faces (parents, coaches and athletes). I even caught this pic of the 6th place finisher in the Junior Boys race - not a triathlete (yet), but our top recruiters are working on it:



I also bumped into Joanna Brown and her ByTown Storm coach Greg Kealey before her race. Jo, the Provincial Junior Triathlon Champion and member of Ontario's Canada Games Triathlon Team was relaxed and looking forward to racing in warm conditions...



...and she ran away from the field to a convincing win in the Senior Women's race:



I was hoping to catch the Senior Men's race too, but it was delayed by approximately 45 minutes, so I had to leave before the gun went off. That's too bad, because I missed Tristan Woodfine (Joanna's ByTown Storm teammate, and Canada Games teammate) taking the early lead and running away with the Senior Men's title!

Both OFSAA Senior Champs are triathletes, from the same triathlon club. Very impressive.

In addition to Joanna and Tristan's excellent races, there we many other triathletes racing throughout the day. The most impressive race was probably the Senior Women's; close behind Joanna were Chelsea Mackinnon (Hamilton Hammerheads) in 8th, and Dominika Jamnicky (another ByTown athlete who raced on Ontario's Canada Games team) in 10th. Three triathletes in the top 10 - great stuff!

There were a host of other triathletes, with a lot of very impressive performances. Hopefully most of you heard us cheering for you, and if I've missed anyone (and I probably have), please e-mail me so I can add you to the list. Where I have the info, I've included the associated triathlon club - feel free to send corrections or updates on that, too.

Congrats to everyone on their efforts today.

Full results here.

Dylan Bates
Joanna Brown (ByTown)
Stephanie Daley
Aleksa Despinic (Hammerheads)
Adam Doxtator
Rachel Faulds
Austen Forbes (Hammerheads)
Taylor Forbes (Hammerheads)
Kyle Haas (Fun2Tri)
Kent Hambly (Hammerheads)
Katherine Howell (Hammerheads)
Domi Jamnicky (ByTown)
Samantha Klus (ByTown)
Jackie Lloyd (Hammerheads)
Duke Lloyd (Hammerheads)
David Mackie
Chelsea Mackinnon (Hammerheads)
Adrienne Morgan
Peter Quosai (Guelph Marlins a while ago, but now running with Speed River...way to go Peter)
Pauline Skowron (C3)
Heather Summers (Hammerheads)
Paige Tate (Hammerheads)
Jessica Witt (Hammerheads)
Tristan Woodfine (ByTown)
Rui Xu (Hammerheads)
Myles Zagar (Fun2Tri)