Summer = Racing!
Things really heated up for Human Powered Racing in June.
A contingent of our short course specialists made the trek to Ottawa for our National Sprint and Standard Distance Championship. David Carleton and Barbara Rober were first up on the Saturday racing the Standard 1.5k swim/ 40k bike and 10k run distances. Barb ran away with a National Championship finishing first in her age group and as the 6th female amateur overall. David overcame early cramping in the swim to finish with a solid 8 place finish in his division.
Shane Russell, Colette Hopkins and 6 time National Age Group Champion Nancy Carleton were up next on Sunday. All had very strong races with Shane having a fantastic swim/bike and running through a calf injury to place 8th in his division. Colette raced to a sprint distance PB and placed 6th in her division. Nancy’s streak of National Championships may have ended with a 3rd place finish, but it was a hard fought trip to the podium after a number of training set backs through the winter and early spring. Both Nancy and Colette now begin ramping up for the World Championship in Rotterdam in the fall while Shane secured his place on Team Canada for the 2018 World Championship in his home country of Australia.
This past weekend saw the 24th running of The Triathlon of Compassion. The Tri of Compassion is put on by Human Powered Racing. This great grass roots event is a fund raiser for the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre. As such, it is a race that is about much more than competition, it is about supporting a very worthy cause.
This year our athletes at Human Powered Racing were not only busy hosting and volunteering for the event, but many decided to race it as well as it was doubling as the Vancouver Island Club Championship. This title of Club Champs had previously gone to TriStars in 2015 and 2016 when the trophy was up for grabs at The Metchosin Triathlon.
Jay Krieger, Ivor John, Sandy Wilson, Nancy Carleton, Colette Hopkins, Richard Boxhall, Carole Richer raced on the Adult Side while our HPR Youth Team was also well represented with Grayson Krieger, Linnea Hopkins, Max Johns, Ava Blakely, Sophie Wood, Ember Bruszkowski and Ava Johns.
Top Performances and podium placings were put in by many or our athletes with special mention going to Jay Krieger who was the overall winner of the event in the men’s event and Ivor John who took the final step on the podium placing 3rd overall. Congratulations also to Nancy Carleton and Sandy Wilson who placed 2nd and 3rd respectively in the women’s overall.
With the turnout by our athletes and the outstanding results, Human Powered Racing was able to get it’s name on the Vancouver Island Club Championship Trophy for the first time.
