The Americans brought out the brooms to sweep the Age Group Standard Duathlon Monday in Penticton.
Albert Harrison (25 to 29) busted through the finish line ribbon to win the five-kilometre run, 40-km bike and 5-km run in one hour 51 minutes eight seconds. Taking the female side was Kirsten Sass (35 to 39) in 2:02:17.
âItâs pretty good. This has been my goal for a year or more,â said Harrison. âTo come here and do it, ⊠you never really know what the competition is going to be. Itâs really sweet. I would like to be in the elite division, but I didnât make that this year. Itâs pretty sweet to come here and win and running away with it.â
Great Britainâs Lee Piercy was second overall in 1:52:04, while Canadian Matt Straatman took third, but won his age group of 20 to 24.
âItâs unbelievable. My race couldnât have gone better for myself,â said Straatman. âI knew what my limits were. I pushed them as hard as I could. This is the best result I could expect here.â
Canadian Melissa Paauwe won the 30 to 34 age group and was second overall in 2:04:47, in what she described as a strong field.
âYou donât always get that in duathlon. Thatâs what I was really excited about with this event,â said Paauwe. âFast runners right out of the gate. I relied on my bike. I went hard on the bike. This is where it landed me.â
Finishing second overall was surreal for her as she found the course mentally challenging.
âYou are constantly battling with emotions,â she said. âPull harder, pull back. You donât really know. I just stay within my own head.â
Mexicoâs Jose Aureliano Valenzuela Roman captured the Paratriathletes Sprint title. Valenzuela crossed the finish line after completing the 5-km run, 20-km bike and 2.5-km run in 1:05:23. Valenzuelaâs objective was to better his performance in Avila, Spain last year.
âThe route was comfortable. I was relaxed and the last part of the race, while I was cycling, I felt really under pressure, but I finally did it,â Valenzuela said through a translator.
Valenzuela became a para athlete after he was part of an accident during a race nearly 30 years ago in which a vehicle crashed into 20 cyclists. He had a broken left arm. Winning this world championship was about doing it for young athletes and kids.
Fiona Southern of New Zealand won the womenâs championship in 1:10:29. She was followed by Australia;s John Domandl and Jessica Toumela of Canada. Canadian Jon Dunkerley wasnât able to finish the race as he encountered bike problems, which trouble him in the past.
âItâs an unbelievable experience. It really is,â said Domandl. âWe (he and his guide) perservered. We stuck with it. We knew we could do it.â
The event is only a warmup as he also intends to the Aquathlon and the Long Course distance.
âWeâre too old to do the short stuff,â he joked.
Tuomela completed the course in 1:20:45.
âI have never done duathlon before. It was pretty hard,â she said. âI was very happy with it. Running is something I have been working on for the last three months. This was a little bit intimidating.â
Toumela enjoyed the course, which she felt was fair and a perfect challenge.
Penticton has athletes competing on home turf. On opening day in the sprint duathlon, Ian Ross (70-74), who competed in the ITU worlds in Avila, Spain, finished in 1:36:15. He placed 509th out of 681 athletes and 11 of 17 in his category. In todayâs event, Sybilla Bartram placed eighth in the 60 to 64 age category finishing in 2:41:07. Deborah Chadwick, 55 to 59, placed 10th in her category after clocking in at 2:40:37. Doug Howard, 55 to 59, was 29th finishing in 2:24:44 and Murray MacPherson, 65 to 69, was second in his group, finishing in 2:20:06. S. Paul Varga placed 41st in the 50 to 54 age group. He finished in 3:15:57.
