Media Release

July 11, 2006 --- Young Manitobans shine in Edmonton!

Manitoba’s Junior Triathlon team had a great weekend in Edmonton winning three of the six possible medals. 

Blair Peters, a 17-year old training with the Manitoba National Triathlon Centre, is the 2006 Junior National Champion finishing 1^st in a time of 56:40. Victorian Andrew McCartney, the 2004 Junior Champion could not keep up to Peters’ blistering pace on the run course and finished in 2^nd with a time of 57.20.  Rounding off the podium was fellow Manitoban and MNTC teammate, 19-year old Willie Bell, finishing just 6 seconds behind McCartney in a time of 57:26. 

Triathlon Canada’s High Performance Director, Tom Patrick, who watched the race live said the Canadian junior men are looking great at the right time of the year.  “It’s phenomenal to see such great results from our guys – we have 3 world class junior athletes who are all improving from event to event.” 

The race also served as the North American Junior Championships where teams from Canada and the USA competed in the Canada – USA Challenge. This competition was scored by adding up the finishing places of the top 3 athletes from each country. For the first time in the 3 year history of the event, Canada was able to win the men’s competition with a total score of 11 points based off the 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th place overall finishes of the top 3 Canadian men. The USA finished with a team score of 12 based on their top 3 finishers placing 1^st, 3^rd and 8^th. 

The overall winner of the event was American Stephen Duplinsky who is the defending World Junior Triathlon Champion who finished in a time of 55:41. MNTC coach Gary Pallett was very excited to see his athletes go up against the best in the World. “Stephen Duplinsky is simply an amazing athlete who has run 14:10 for 5000 meters. Last year at Worlds, Duplinsky won by 30 seconds over the second place finisher, so to see Blair finish within a minute and Willie within a minute and a half, are pretty impressive accomplishments”. 

In the junior female event MNTC athlete Sarah – Anne Brault placed a strong second to Victoria athlete Kirsten Sweetland who won the race in a time of 1:01:48. Sarah’s time was 1:03:15 and Paula Findley the third place finisher from Edmonton finished in a time of 1:03:45. These 3 athletes were also the top 3 finishers in the North American Championships giving Canada the female win in the Canada – USA challenge.

First timers Katie Wray and Stevie Moore of the MNTC, finished in 30^th and 37^th respectively in times of 1:13:26 and 1:17:24. 

Patrick, a Winnipeger now living in Victoria, was really impressed with the top-3 female finishers.  “I think we have a great shot at a podium at the World Championships.  These were great performances today from an international racing perspective and a medal at the World Championships is very much in the cards.” 

Pallett, was also very impressed with his young female athlete. “Sarah really stepped up to the challenge, after being involved in a bike crash in St. Malo at the first qualifier for the World Championships, she had to finish in the top 2 in this event to qualify for the Canadian Worlds team. When you consider she had never finished a sprint distance triathlon prior to this event, it really demonstrates how special an athlete she is.” 

With Blair, Willie and Sarah’s great performances in Edmonton and several months earlier in Hamilton, Ontario at the Canadian Duathlon Championships, all three have now qualified to compete in both the World Duathlon Championship in Corner Brook, NFLD at the end of July and the World Triathlon Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland in early September. 

This page was last updated on July 11, 2006