We arrived in Oklahoma on Wednesday the 13th for the race which took place on Saturday the 16th. Wednesday night we got a nice Oklahoma welcome as a number of tornados we're near the hotel. The next 2 days we joined the rest of the Canadian Juniors with race prep for the event. Friday evening we had the race meeting. It was better organized than last year in Mexico but race organization standards almost always seem poorer than they are in Canada, but always a great learning experience for the juniors but always stress out the coaches.The junior women's field had 57 entrants from 16 countries, while the men's race had 72 entrants from 19 countries.
Friday evening we had more storms but the rain stopped at 6 AM and fortunately stayed away for the races.Water temperature was just over the wetsuit cutoff so no wetsuits were allowed. The water was filthy although it was entertaining watching all of the athletes leave the water with mud beards from the dirty water. The girls race started at 8:00 AM. Christine Rideneaur from Canada made a solo break in the swim and left the water with a 20 second lead on a large chase pack. As always in international racing with large fields making the lead pack proved to be the most important part of the race. Marita left the water in 7th place (11:53) only a few seconds behind the 2nd place person. Rachael (12:18) and Stevie (12:22) left the water at the back of this group. I knew watching the race it was going to be tough for them to make the lead group. Rachael had a 48 second transition and Stevie 51 seconds leaving them 7 seconds apart. Both had to ride solo for the next mile to try to catch the pack. Rachael barely made it but Stevie didn't quite get there and once the group gets organized a solo rider doesn't have a chance. By the end of the 20 km bike the lead group of 13 had opened up a 90 second lead on the second group.
Rachael(19:45) had a great transition and made it out onto the run with the lead runners, she had a solid run and ended up 4th. Marita (21:32) had a strong run and held off most of the faster runners from the second pack and finished 14th. Stevie (21:12) came into transition first in her pack and took off running strong, beating most of the runners from her pack, finishing in 18th. In the guys race both Mark and Josh left the water about 30 seconds behind the leaders and both made the second pack. Unlike the women's race the 2nd pack had the better cyclists and managed to ride down all of the leaders except for 2 athletes who held the lead for the entire bike. At about 14 km Mark caught wheels with another Canadian rider and went down. Fortunately he wasn't seriously hurt but his day was over. Josh stayed in the group of 20 and then ran pretty well to finish 18th.
The roads were very poor resulting in a number of bike crashes, unfortunately the results didn't give splits for athletes who completed only part of the event so we have no results for Mark and Josh lost his timing chip in the swim so nothing for him as well. Great results from all of the Manitoban's overall as we managed to place everyone in the top third of starters.
The Canadian team had a lot of success with 4 podium finishes. Kyla Coates won the Junior Girls and Marianne Hogan was third, as well as Connor Hammond placed 2nd in the Junior Guys and Andrew McCartney finished 3rd in U23 Guys.
Click Here for the results http://www.fleetfeettiming.com/results.html
Yes, we swam in this!
Wow, great summary...I am impressed, and, kudos to the atheletes that braved those Oklahoma waters!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, and, continue with the great race summaries including tips such as "staying in the pack" to give a competitive advantage.