Bronze Medal - Paula Findlay - 2009 U23 World Triathlon Championships, Australia

The 2009 World Triathlon Championships got off to a great start today with Paula racing to a bronze medal in the U23 race. The race was held in beautiful conditions on the Gold Coast of Australia. The two U23 men also put in very good performances with Andrew McCartney finishing with a strong 15th place finish and Andrew Yorke in 36th.

Congratulations to all the coaching, medical and support staff in Australia and at home that have contributed to the development of the athletes.

Pic's to follow:

training pics, Gold Coast, Australia

a few more pics. wow.. two posts in one day.. I must have a bit of free time.

a few pics from Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast, Australia

Hi All. Pre race prep has been going very well here at Surfer's Paradise. The weather is good (other than the big rain storm we had a few nights ago). The sharks have stayed away so far but today Gabor (team bike mechanic) and Rob Hasegawa (team chiropractor) are just heading out with a young female surf instructor. I'm sure they'll be back in a few hours with smiles on their faces.

A few pics for your viewing pleasure.

Team Relay news article - courtesy of TriCan.

British Columbia Sweeps Gold in Triathlon Team Competition at Canada Summer Games
August 21, 2009

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I.—British Columbia owned the podium by winning gold in both the men’s and women’s triathlon team competitions at the 2009 Canada Summer Games in Summerside, P.E.I. on Friday.
British Columbia’s Alison Hooper, Christine Ridenhour and Kyla Coates teamed up to clock a winning time of one hour nine minutes 35 seconds in the relay where each athlete completes a 300-metre swim, seven-kilometre bike course, and two-kilometre run. Athletes tag off to their teammate at the completion of all three disciplines.
Alison Hooper, who is completing her first season in triathlon, set the tone early for the powerful B.C. trio. But while the 17-year-old opened a gap on the field with Manitoba’s Sarah-Anne Brault, it was Christine Ridenhour who took control of the race for the B.C. women, and handed off to Kyla Coates to complete the anchor leg and secure the gold.
“That was a tough race today. We all brought different tactics to the race and they came together perfectly,” said 19-year-old Kyla Coates. “We all pulled our weight today and did a great job together.”
Alison Hooper made history earlier in the weak by winning the first-ever triathlon gold medal at the Canada Summer Games.
“Of course it was amazing to win the individual race, but it is so much better to be able to share a victory with your teammates,” said Hooper. “These are the guys I train with each day and they are the one’s that pushed me to win earlier this week so I’m very happy to win this with them today.”
Manitoba’s Sarah-Anne Brault, Rachael Edwards and Stevie Moore celebrated the silver medal with a time of 1:10:12. Ontario’s Joanna Brown, Dorelle Hinton and Dominika Jamnicky locked up the bronze medal at 1:11:00.
After a short break, the top women’s triathletes under 20 years old took to the sidelines to cheer on the men’s teams competing in the relay on Summerside’s picturesque waterfront.
British Columbia wasted little time asserting their authority in the men’s competition also as Matt Sharpe climbed out of the water first after a dominant swim. While Sharpe continued to set the pace in the bike, Nova Scotia and Ontario closed the gap in the two-kilometre run. B.C. regained the lead after Sharpe handed off to Cole Stewart who opened a commanding gap on the field, setting up the anchor leg for Jeff Phillips. The B.C. trio clocked a golden time of 1:04:09.
“This was an absolutely great race today,” said the 20-year-old Phillips, who also won the gold medal in the individual event on Tuesday. “The guys set me up perfectly today. We put it all on the line and left nothing out there.”
Ontario’s Ian Donald, Connor Hammond and Tristan Woodfine combined to post a silver-medal winning time of 1:05:20. Manitoba’s Josh Drad, Riley MacCharles and Mark Okany rounded out the men’s podium in third at 1:06:25.
The team competition is a new, exciting format that is being introduced by the International Triathlon Union at the elite level in hopes of it being selected into the lineup of competitions at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. The new format is aimed at introducing a new generation of participants to the sport with shorter, more spectator friendly courses and intense action.
“I think the team competition is so fun and adds a whole new dimension to our sport,” said Phillips at the finish line. “We train as a team everyday and to be able to come out and race together makes it very exciting.”
The team competition also wrapped up a successful debut for the sport of triathlon at the Canada Summer Games. Hundreds of spectators lined Summerside’s waterfront and downtown streets to catch the high-paced action, and one of the nation’s fastest growing sports.
Led by coach Pat Kelly, British Columbia athletes dominated the inaugural triathlon events winning all four gold medals on the table.
“Our goal this week was to sweep and we did that,” said Jeff Phillips. “I said earlier this week British Columbia is the triathlon capital of Canada and I think we did a good job in proving that.”
Triathlon Canada is the governing body for triathlon in the country. Recognized as an Olympic medal sport since 2000, Triathlon Canada’s mandate is to promote, foster, organize and develop the sport of triathlon, and its related disciplines, in Canada. For more information on Triathlon Canada, please visit us at www.triathloncanada.com on the Internet.
Complete Canada Summer Games Triathlon Results : www.2009canadagames.ca
(3 x 300-metre swim, 7-kilometre bike, 2-kilometre run)

Top-Five Junior Women’s Results:
1. British Columbia, 1:09:35; 2. Manitoba, 1:10:12; 3. Ontario, 1:11:00; 4. Quebec, 1:13:42; 5. Alberta, 1:14:09.
Top-Five Junior Men’s Results
1. British Columbia, 1:04:09; 2. Ontario, 1:05:20; 3. Manitoba, 1:06:25; 4. Nova Scotia, 1:07:08; 5. Alberta, 1:08:23

Team Event Pictures

Team pics at this link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/barbsha/TeamEventCanadaSummerGames#

Canada Games Media Video

Find here a video from CSG. Well spoken, Barb did you give the them media relations training as well? Great job to the BC athletes, coaches, TriBC, and Manager!

CSG Pics!!

Double Gold - Double Bronze!!! :) Globe and Mail article.

Well it's 11:15 p.m. in PEI and I need to go to bed.. so I'm just going to post this Globe and Mail report instead of writing up something myself. I'll try to come up with something tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your great support and cheering. We could feel the energy!!

Lori Ewing
SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — The Canadian Press
Last updated on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009 04:58PM EDT
When Victoria's Alison Hooper broke through the finish-line banner of Tuesday's triathlon at the Canada Games, she grabbed it and took it with her.

Hooper and Jeff Phillips, also of Victoria, penned their names in the Canada Games history books by capturing gold in triathlon's debut on a dominant day for the B.C. team.

“It's pretty exciting, I made history, which is kind of cool,” Hooper said.

Hooper, 16, a former swimmer competing in her first season of triathlon, finished in 58 minutes 15 seconds to lead a trio of B.C. women that finished in the top four. Sarah-Anne Brault of Winnipeg won silver in 58:34, while Kyla Coates of Victoria took the bronze in 58:57. Christine Ridenour of Cowichan Bay, B.C., finished fourth in 59:12.

“I didn't know quite how it was going to go, especially with the 20-year-olds in this race, but I stuck with Sarah-Anne on the run and I felt really good and went for it,” Hooper said. “It was pretty exciting.”

Phillips, 20, won in 53:59, holding off Connor Hammond of London, Ont., who took the silver in 54:44. Cole Stewart of Langley, B.C., captured bronze in 54:52.

“I'm pretty happy, our B.C. team was really strong this year, all three of us were really strong swimmers,” Phillips said. “We were going for gold plus another podium spot and we got that, I'm feeling really happy about this.

“This was exactly what we wanted and I could be any more happy.”

Hooper was second out of the water behind Alberta's Ellen Pennock after a 750-metre swim in the Summerside Harbour, and then was among a pack of six through the 20-kilometre bike that snaked around the downtown area. She and Brault battled it out through much of the five-kilometre run before Hooper took the lead for good.

Inspired by Simon Whitfield's silver-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics, Hooper started training for triathlon less than a year ago, switching to the sport from swimming because her small stature.

“My size was starting to catch up with me,” said the five-foot-two Hooper. “My coach said you should try running, see how you feel, try this sport.

“I kind of took baby steps in October, starting training then, and really picked it up.”

Her goal was simply to make the Canada Games team. She did that, and went on to win the Canadian junior championships last month earning a berth for the world junior event next month in Australia.

“I love the sport,” Hooper said.

B.C. was the class of the field — no surprise considering most of the country's top triathletes, including Olympians Whitfield and Lauren Groves, make Victoria their training base.

“I'm surrounded by amazing athletes to train with, you can pursue a really good triathlon career from that centre in Victoria,” Hooper said.

“We just have a really good program in B.C.,” Phillips added. “You have all the top athletes there. We have year-round weather which is fantastic, we can ride year-round, there's tons of trails to run on, bike routes, it's just a great place to train.”

A group of eight athletes, including all three of B.C.'s athletes, quickly separated themselves from the field after the swim and hammered the pace on the 20-kilometre bike. Knowing that Hammond was a decent runner, Phillips and his teammates tried to work together through the bike to lose the Ontario athlete.

“We were trying all bike long to get a gap on him, every single one of us was trying to attack repeatedly, and I kind of decided at the end to just go for it and hammer my way in,” Phillips said. “I got a bit of a gap and then ran as fast as I could, just tried to stay away, I didn't want him to catch me.

“I didn't want to get into a running battle because I worked a lot on that bike.”

The triathlon event at the Canada Games includes athletes 16-to-20 years of age.

B.C. will be the obvious favourites in Friday's men's and women's team triathlon events.

Podium Day for Team BC

Pics here... http://picasaweb.google.com/barbsha/SummerGamesPodiumForTEAMBC#

Story to follow...