The beautiful ocean-side community of Sooke welcomed triathletes from around North America with perfect weather and one of the world’s most scenic and demanding triathlon courses. The bike segment included a very challenging climb on the back side of the course that the athletes had to battle 4 times, the type of climb that could become legendary with this new race.
The Howitzer cannon blasted to start the day where Daniel Wells of Holland’s Landing, Ontario, who has been training in Victoria with recent Olympic Silver Medalist Simon Whitfield, exited the water with an incredible 4 minute lead. American Chris Boudreaux used his strong cycling to overtake Wells on the third loop of the bike and never looked back to finish with the victory, breaking the tape in 4:17:18 where he received first hand congratulations from Sooke Mayor Janet Evans. Frank Woolstencroft of Calgary also used a very strong bike segment to move himself back into the race and on to the podium for third place.
In the women’s race, former Under 23 National Team Member, Janet Nielsen, was the first woman out of the water but was overtaken on the bike by Vancouver’s Christine Fletcher. Spokane’s Haley Cooper, coming off a strong finish at Ironman Coeur D’Alene earlier this year, rode through Nielsen and Fletcher to take the lead heading on to the run course which included a trip out to the lighthouse on beautiful Whiffin Spit, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. Cooper ultimately posted the fastest woman’s run split of the day to take the title with Fletcher finishing in second, and Nielsen rounding out the podium. In the Sprint Race, Nathan Killam of Surrey, BC, and Charlene Parrott, of Coquitlam, BC, took the respective men’s and women’s titles.
The Top 3 finishers of the half iron were as follow:
Men:
| 1. Chris Boudreaux | Baton Rouge, LA, USA | 4:17:18 |
| 2. Daniel Wells | Victoria, BC, Canada | 4:29:04 |
| 3. Frank Woolstencroft | Calgary, AB, Canada | 4:41:05 |
Women:
| 1. Haley Cooper | Spokane, WA, USA | 4:36:17 |
| 2. Christine Fletcher | Vancouver, BC, Canada | 4:43:05 |
| 3. Janet Nielsen | Victoria, BC, Canada | 5:07:04 |
For full results visit Lifesport.ca.
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