Chinook Triathalon a success

Some elite athletes went the distance in Jarvis Bay.

On Saturday, July 30 – Jarvis Bay and the Town of Sylvan Lake hosted the 2016 Chinook Triathlon. The event, which was in its second year in Sylvan Lake and 12th overall, returned after avery successful inaugural year and was exactly what organizer Jordan Bryden was looking for.

“It has a cool community feel to it,” he said. “We like to think of ourselves as a little less serious but still competitive race. A grassroots feel is really important to us.”

The event, which lost its pro race this year due to timing constraints of the World Championship Qualifiers, was considered the Alberta Provincial Championship – which Bryden said will bring good exposure to the event.

“Hopefully this will give us a good launching platform for future years of the race,” he said. “We think this community can support 500-1000 athletes.

He added that this race featured “very high end athletes” including a former Olympian.

The event was broke up into three distances: the first being the standard, which is on Olympic length triathlon; the second being the half-iron distance; and the third being the aqua-bike– which is good for athletes that have lower leg injuries which are very common among triathletes.

The first wave of runners started around 7 a.m., and the second wave left around 8 a.m., with the entire event culminating around 2 p.m. at the finish line. Participants and winners were awarded with “really cool medals and awards,” according to Bryden.

“We have a great festival atmosphere this year because of the long weekend,” Bryden said, adding that the support of residents of Jarvis Bay last year was incredible with people having their sprinklers on for the runners and cheering them along the way.

Bryden hoped that participants this year had the same positive reaction as last year to Sylvan Lake.

“The majority of people had not seen Sylvan Lake in 10 years,” he said. “They came out here and thought ‘wow they have done so much good work’.”

If you would like more information about the triathlon, you can go to chinooktriathlon.com

reporter@sylvanlakenews.com