July 24, 2009 (Canmore, AB) – Some of Canada’s top XC skiers along with Cross Country Canada staff were strutting their stuff at the recent Canmore Triathlon held in Canmore, Alberta on July 18, as part of the Alberta Provincial Championships.

Canmore Triathlon Report
Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov, James Cunningham, Stefan Kuhn, Brent McMurtry, Brittany Webster and coach Eric de Nys along with ex-NST member Chris Jeffries all competed in Saturday’s Canmore Olympic triathlon. An epic battle unfolded.

The competition was really the NST members again themselves. First out of the water in the bright Canmore sunshine was James, High Performance Coordinator-West for CCC whose strong background in triathlon would bode well amongst the average to not so average swimmers on the NST. Devon was next followed closely by Alex who would pass Devon in transition to the bike. Ivan, former Russian swim team member according to the rumors, was another 3 minutes back which he would more than make up on the bike. These 4 swimmers had a large gap on the rest of the group with Stefan, Eric & Brent finishing with the help of the odd backstroke, some 4-10 minutes behind. Of note, Chris Jeffries would pull out after the first swim lap due to lack of oxygen on the swim and Ivan would lose his timing chip while taking off his wetsuit, hence no bike or run time for him.

The bike finished with the following order: Alex, James, Ivan, Devon, Stef, Eric, Brent. The hilly bike course took its toll on a few athletes to continue on the hilly run course on the Canmore Nordic Centre roller ski trails. Devon took advantage of his running strength and pulled out the fastest run split of the day passing Alex with 500m to go to finish 4th overall, 3rd in his age group. Alex would finish 5th overall, 2nd in his age group and Ivan 6th overall, 4th in his age group. James would finish 8th overall, due to an injury which prevented running training in the last month. Brent, Stef and Eric would finish 25-30 minutes respectively behind the leaders each with their own race day challenges.

Brittany Webster smashed her competition in the women’s sprint triathlon winning 1st in her age group and third overall.

For the complete results click here.
More photos here.

Results (brief)

Olympic Competition

Men
1. Jamie Whyte (Men 25-29) 2:02:15
2. Jon Bird (Men 25-29) 2:03:53
3. Simon Schaerz (Men 20-24) 2:06:25
4. Devon Kershaw (Men 25-29) 2:06:43
5. Alex Harvey (Men 20-24) 2:07:15
6. Leif Baradoy (Men 25-29) 2:13:35
7. James Cunningham (Men 25-29) 2:14:46
8. Greg Nicholson (Men 35-39) 2:16:38
9. Mark Jessee (Men 30-34) 2:17:54
10. Bo Simpson (Men 30-34) 2:18:08

Women
1. Kelly Geisheimer (Women 25-29) 2:21:20
2. Kristin Baker (Women 25-29) 2:22:19
3. Jenny Rowe (Women 35-39) 2:27:20
4. Tegan Owens (Women 20-24) 2:29:04
5. Margaret Ritchie (Women 50-54) 2:31:01
6. Jen Panteluk (Women 25-29) 2:31:32
7. Jillian Beveridge (Women 25-29) 2:33:02
8. Catherine Liversidge (Women 40-44) 2:34:51
9. Jordan Hons (Women 25-29) 2:36:01
10. Natalie Vloet (Women 25-29) 2:36:18