401 SERIES SET TO GO

The 401 Distance Series is designed to provide international level high performance middle and long distance races in Southwestern Ontario.  The series of three meets, all within a week, allow athletes the opportunity to compete in a variety of distances to fit their needs.  The competitions are each set up to allow for optimal performance.

401 Series Website.

THE BIG MAZUNGO RETURNS TO TRIATHLON?

Craig Mottram's
triathlon surge

Scott Gullan
Herald Sun April 22, 2010 12:00AM

Craig Mottram could win the triathlon gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

That's the opinion of the Victorian Institute of Sport triathlon head coach Jonathan Hall, after spending two months working with Australia's best middle distance runner.

Full article.

ITU MONTERREY WORLD CUP

Canadian Juniors 2nd in the YOG Relay in Monterrey this morning. Great job!

Follow the ITU Monterrey World Cup online here.

Paula Findlay is the lone Canadian in the women's race - starting now, 10AM EST - and there are a five Canadian men in the men's race: Andrew McCartney, Andrew Russell, AP B-Smith, Jordan Bryden and Austin Horn. Go Canada!

EDIT: Race Results and post-race article available here.

Congratulations to Paula Findlay on her first World Cup Win!

YOG QUALIFIER RESULTS

The formatting of the results is a bit strange, but they are posted here. Scroll to the bottom and select "YOG Varonil" for the boys and "YOG Feminil" for the girls.


Women
1. Adriana Barraza (MEX) 59:46
2. Kelly Whitley (USA) 59:59
3. Christine Ridenour(CAN) 1:00:05
4. Allison Hooper (CAN) 1:01:25
5. Domi Jamnicky (CAN) 1:01:31
12. Maghalie Rochette (CAN) 1:03:41
13. Hillary Willie (CAN) 1:03:50
22. Amelie Kretz (CAN) 1:07:20


Canadian Men
1. Kevin McDowell (USA) 53:46
2. Octavio Oliveros (MEX) 54:33
3. Vinicio Ibarra (MEX) 54:54
6. Brook Powell(CAN) 55:38
18. Marc-Antoine Christin (CAN) 56:44
21. Riley MacCharles (CAN) 57:06
35. Charles Brault (CAN) 58:48
36. Riley Unger (CAN) 58:56

Congrats to all athletes and coaches.



EDIT: I could have saved myself some time by just posting the ITU link, complete with post-race article and results. Hat's off to the ITU for getting official results up so quickly for a junior race.

FRIDAY ODDS & ENDS

Busy days lately for the RTC crew (isn't that how everyone starts a blog post after they haven't written for a while?), with most of our group balancing exams and training. A few quick notices, reminders, and kudos:

DRAFT CLINIC
A reminder of the upcoming draft certification clinic, Sunday May 2nd, at UofGuelph. The clinic being hosted by coach Lorri Zagar on April 18th is sold out.

WETSUIT FOR SALE
Johnny Rasmussen has a 2XU E:0 Medium tall wetsuit for sale. Brand new, doesn't fit. E-mail me if you're interested and I'll put you in touch with JR.

GO CANADA!
A number of Canada's top triathletes are in Monterrey Mexico right now. The juniors are racing later today, looking to punch their ticket to the Youth Olympic Games later this year in Singapore. On Sunday, the elites take to the start line for the Monterrey World Cup. Everyone looks ready to put in a great race. Coach Gary Pallet is leading the team in Moneterrey, so check the MNTC blog for updates.

GO CANADA! PART 2
Last weekend, National Team Members Simon Whitfield, Kyle Jones and Kathy Tremblay raced the first leg of the World Championships Series in Sydney. Simon kicked off his season in style, with a 5th place finish, and while Kyle and Kathy didn't end up where they wanted to be, both can take lots of positives away from the race. I'm sure most of you followed it live online, but if not, you can see the video highlights here for the mens race and here for the womens race.

CBC COVERAGE
If you found the ITU online coverage of the Sydney races to be a bit choppy (I did), and you live in Canada, you can enjoy the same coverage from CBC, minus the choppy-ness. Kyle Jones has the details posted on his blog. Tell your friends.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Alexander found this great quote in an interview on letsrun.com with Track Coach Bill Aris:

"Well, another one of our phrases that you've correctly tapped into - 'the process is the goal' - we live by that. I've got that up on our wall in our office and every one of our kids can recite that and they know exactly what it means. ... We focus on not the achievement of a certain elusive goal. We focus on trying to perfect what we do every day - that's our goal. The process is the goal. The daily grind is the goal, if you will."

Next week's quiz question: What is a "Stotan"?

Have a great weekend. Ready, Set, Go Canada!

SYDNEY WCS

The first leg of the 2010 ITU World Championship Series kicks off in Sydney, Australia, this weekend. If my math is right, race coverage should begin at 5:00pm (EST) Saturday. For live video race coverage, visit the ITU website. To check my math on the time zones, go here. Local race times on Sunday in Sydney are 7am (Men) and 9:45am (Women).

Canada will be represented by National Team Members Simon Whitfield, Kyle Jones and Kathy Tremblay.

Go Canada!

THIS IS WHAT 130 WATTS LOOKS LIKE

SOMETHING SPECIAL

Had a good chat with Tom & Ian today, and got talking about Peter Robertson's win at the 2005 ITU World Champs in Gamagori, Japan. It still ranks as one of my all-time favourite races. Five years on, it's interesting to look back at some of the names in the races; some familiar faces were just emerging on the world stage, and some others were (and still are) at the top of their game. Here's a great video of the mens race, definitely worth your time, and more entertaining than anything on TV tonight.

Some great quotes from Robo at the end:

"Today was something special...I had to dig deep. I've never hurt like that before. I was absolutely exhausted coming down the finish chute. I just didn't want to get passed, it meant too much to me today. I'm really glad I hung on for....an amazing victory."

"I knew I could do it...I knew it would be tough...but, I guess I wanted it more than anyone else."

TECK 2010 JUNIOR NATIONAL SERIES

401 SERIES

Dave Scott-Thomas, head coach of the Speed River Track & Field Club (and Guelph Gryphons running teams) recently announced the "401 Series". From the TnF North forum:

The 401 Series is a collaboration between the University of Windsor, London Runner Distance Club and Speed River TFC to create opportunities to run fast during what is otherwise a fairly empty period for non-high-school athletes.

The locations, meets, dates and events:

Windsor Open T&F Meet
May 29th
Windsor Stadium
EVENTS: 800m, 1500m, 3000m s/c, 5000m(m)
(speed/power events also offered)

RCLDS #2 – The Kick-Off
June 1st or 2nd
Price-Waterhouse Stadium, London
EVENTS: 800m, 3000m
London Runner.

Speed River Mid-D Inferno
June 5th
St James Track, Guelph, Ontario
EVENTS: 600m, 1500m(w), Mile(m), Long Jump
Speed River TFC.

All results FAT.
Prizes will be modest; the purpose is speed.
Races and fields will be set up to run fast. The goal is to get some Ontario-based events where athletes can hammer. We've got good out-of-province interest already.

-----------------------

For athletes looking to post an official 3000m or 5000m time, these events might be the perfect opportunity. Thanks to the clubs and coaches for working together to organize this. Even if you're not racing, come out and enjoy the events; there are some very fast athletes from these programs, and the races should be exciting.

RTC Guelph

After months of behind the scenes work by Triathlon Canada, Triathlon Ontario, and the Canadian Sport Centre Ontario, I'm happy to announce that beginning today, we are a Triathlon Canada Regional Triathlon Centre (RTC-Guelph). For our squad, it means we now fall under the umbrella of Triathlon Canada's High Performance Program, with great support from our partners OAT and CSC-Ontario. In many ways, very little changes; we're still based at the University of Guelph and I'm still the head coach of the program. I'm confident that OAT's Provincial Triathlon Centre will continue to exist - not as a full time training squad (that will be the RTC program) - but as a vehicle to conduct training days and clinics, camps, coach development and talent ID. Details are currently being ironed out, but I think OAT is well positioned to continue to do great work in those areas.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the OAT Board, OAT Executive Director Linda Kirk, and Alan Fairweather for having the vision to help create the PTC program here, and for their incredible support over the last three years. I'd also like to thank Larry McMahon, Kurt Innes and Alan Trivett from Triathlon Canada, along with Dr. Tom Patrick and Tommy Wharton from the Canadian Sport Centre Ontario, and Linda Kirk and the OAT Board for working together to make the RTC-Guelph a reality.

We've certainly come a long way in a short time, and I've had the immense pleasure to work with some amazing athletes and coaches along the way. We still have three 'original' athletes here who've been with the program since the beginning - although I think Dorelle's concept of proper recovery has improved somewhat since the early days - and we'll be working hard to develop athletes who can represent Canada on the international stage.

For now, I'm going to keep the PTC and RTC blogs separate. My hope (expectation) is that the PTC blog will continue, with some new leadership, and I'll keep the RTC blog rolling with updates, too.

Thanks, and all the best in your training and racing.

CT