American
Hunter Kemper and Canada's Sharon Donnelly win the
2002 Nike
Victoria International Triathlon
Simon Whitfield and Donnelly claim Canadian titles
Victoria
(June 16, 2002) Hunter Kemper of Colorado Springs,
USA and Sharon Donnelly from Kingston, ON, CAN beat
a record elite field in record times to win the Nike
Victoria International Triathlon today.
Donnelly's
win ensured her a place on the first-ever Canadian
Commonwealth Games Triathlon team, alongside PacificSport
National Triathlon Centre's Whitfield (Kingston, ON,
CAN) and ancouver's Carol Montgomery (CAN) who had
pre-qualified based on their international ranking.
PacificSport teammates Kelly Guest (Victoria, CAN),
who placed 10th in the men's race, and Natasha Filliol
(Paris, ON, CAN) who took second in the women's, were
also named to the team.
"I
was really focusing on this event in my training,"said
Donnelly. "Having done the course last year,
I could realize it in my training at home but I didn't
have the spectators cheering me on in my training.
They were just great."
Whitfield,
in his first race since his accident at the Geelong
ITU, crossed the line one minute 23 seconds after
Kemper's race record of 1:45.22 to take second. New
Zealand¹s Bevan Docherty was third in 1:46.50.
In the women's race, Donnelly also set a course record
in 1:59.42, Filliol came second in 2:00.30 and Jill
Savege (Penticton, CAN) took third in 2:00.50. Last
year's times were 1:49.36 set by Whitfield and 2:03.58
set by American Laura Rebak.
"It
was a good day for me, but it really came down to
the run,"said Kemper. "I was able to pull
away in the second lap of the run and anytime you
can beat the Olympic champion, you have to put that
on your resume."
This
is the fourth consecutive time Whitfield has won the
Canadian Elite Triathlon Championships/Championnats
canadiens de triathlon d'elite and the second time
Donnelly has won. She was national champion in 1999.
Six
athletes qualified for the U23 World Triathlon Championships
for Canada: Brent McMahon (Victoria), Colin Jenkins
(Hamilton, ON), Mark Despaties (Laval, PQ), Lauren
Groves (Victoria), Kelly Geisheima (Kelowna) and Natasha
Filliol.
Seventy-one
men and 39 women contested the Olympic distance elite
race while 325 age-group athletes raced in the Olympic
distance, Sprint and Relay divisions.
Full
results are available on www.pacificsport.com, ww.triathlon.org
and www.triathloncanada.com.
The
PacificSport National Triathlon Centre is one of six
national sport centers at PacificSport Canadian Sport
Centre - Victoria. It is a partnership of Triathlon
Canada, Triathlon BC and PacificSport Canadian Sport
Centre - Victoria. The PacificSport Group is the BC
Network of Canadian & Regional Sport Centres committed
to world-class athlete services, coaching excellence
and long-term sport development. PacificSport includes
national centres in Victoria and Vancouver and regional
centres serving Vancouver Island (Nanaimo), Fraser
Valley (Abbotsford), Interior BC (Kamloops) and Northern
BC (Prince George and the Okanagan (Kelowna). The
national sport centres in Victoria and Vancouver are
part of the Canadian Sport Centre Network that includes
Atlantic Canada, Montreal, Ontario, Winnipeg, Saskatoon
and Calgary.
Media
Contact: Joanna Fox, PacificSport Canadian Sport Centre-
Victoria, (250) 595-1955, cell 882-5426.
