Posted: March 22, 2006

Triathlon: 3 Canadians on route to Norway for the World Winter Triathlon Championships

Jasper Blake preparing for Saturday's Winter Triathlon World Championship - Photo: Triathlon Canada

There are only a few days until the best winter triathletes race in the 2006 ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships in Sjusjoen, Norway and Canada will be well represented in this ever growing sport with 3 athletes.

Jasper Blake from Victoria is on the National Long Distance team and is looking forward to this new challenge. Blake participated in his first ever 15km cross country ski event Saturday in Vancouver and won the race as a tune-up for the upcoming Worlds. “I am off to Norway today and I can't wait. The race this weekend was a good boost and another good reminder why I am going to Norway. Simply, I love winter sports and I love competing. There are some great skiers in Norway so it should be interesting.”

Matt Richardson, who is a member of Triathlon Nova Scotia and is currently living in Europe, is also competing in Sjusjoen. Richardson has been competing on the ITU Winter Triathlon World Cup Circuit and he too can’t wait to race on the picturesque course in Sjusjoen just 20km East of Lillehammer (Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics).

Canada’s third competitor is Mark Tarnopolsky from Hamilton. Tarnopolsky is a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the McMaster University Medical Centre who raced in triathlons and duathlons in the late 80s and 90s, however he now focuses on adventure racing. Tarnopolsky won the Ontario Trail Running Series the past 2 years and has won multiple winter adventure races throughout North America.

The race will be considered an altitude race at 850 metres above sea level starting with a 7.5km run, followed by a mountain bike ride of 12km and finishing with cross-country skiing for 9km. All three disciplines are performed on the snow. The athletes will be competing for a purse of 12,000 USD with 1,500 USD going to the winner.

The following day, Sunday March 26th, the 3 Canadian athletes will team-up for the Elite Team Sprint Relay. The distances for this event are significantly shorter with the run being 2.5km, the mountain bike is 3.5km and XC-skiing is only 2.5km. The purse for the team competition is very small with the winners splitting 750.00 USD.

Norway as the host nation, with 2 of the top 4 ranked athletes in the world, is the country with a long standing tradition in this discipline and will be the favourite this weekend, along with world number one Daniel Antonioli from Italy. 12 of the 38 competitors are Norwegians which is almost one third of the field. Other countries to look out for include the United States, Austria Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. 12 Countries are represented in this World Championship race.

Winter triathlon is a growing sport world wide but especially in Europe. National championship competitions were held in Europe and South America in 2005, and other countries will be added to this list in 2006. The ITU is hoping winter triathlon will become popular enough for the International Olympic Committee to include it in the Winter Olympic Games possibly in Vancouver in 2010.

Athletes with strong triathlon and Nordic skiing backgrounds will be naturals in winter triathlon competition. Sound balance and mountain bike skills are essential in competitive placing in the current winter triathlon format at the elite level.

Source: Triathlon Canada
Triathlon Canada is the National Federation for the Sport of Triathlon and Duathlon in Canada.

Comment on this story.

Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest