South Okanagan's Vandeweghe dominated short course — Nelson's Locke, Maly finish in medals
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
Kirk Vandeweghe of Penticton usually cooks with the longer distance racers at the Nelson Cyswogn’Fun.
However, the South Okanagan triathlete decided his sprint distance needed a little fine-tuning.
After blazing over the Cyswogn’ Fun short course in near record time Vandeweghe can head back to the longer distance after capturing the short course title at the 2011 Nelson Cyswogn’Fun Sunday.
Vandeweghe cruised over the 500-meter swim, 22-kilometer cycle and five-kilometer run in a time of one hour, eight minutes and 29 seconds.
“I actually like to do a whole mix of triathlons,” Vandeweghe said from near the concession stand at Lakeside Park.
“I think sprint really boosts your fitness. So I do tons of sprints, Olympics, half’s . . . they all sort of prepare for the next race.”
Vandeweghe was almost six minutes in front of Nelson’s Peter Lock and eight ahead of Anthony Maley.
I was really happy (with second),” Locke, using the Cyswogn’Fun as a cross trainer to prepare for another season on the cross-country ski scene as an elite racer.
“This is only my second time ever racing triathlon so I’m very happy with my result.”
Vandeweghe was first out of the water, first in the cycle before coasting home in second to capture the overall men’s short-course crown.
“I think this is an incredible course,” Vandeweghe explained. “To think you can ride across the (Big Orange) bridge and run across the bridge twice is pretty cool.”
For Locke, leaving the water in 13th spot, it was the cycle to Six Mile that allowed the Nelsonite to win the silver medal.
Locke finished second behind Vandeweghe to edge up the leaderboard. He then pushed himself on the run to grab second.
“I’m not as good at running so the final stage was the toughest for me,” Locke said. “And it’s tough to switch from biking to running because your legs are pretty tired, but it was a fun race.”
A key for Locke in 2011 was learning the course layout. A glitch during his previous race cost the Nelsonite dearly.
“Last year I went the wrong way and was disqualified, so this year made it to the (Saturday’s) meeting so that helped,” Locke said with a chuckle.
Maley, first in the men’s 30-39 division, was seventh in the swim and bike stage before blazing the five-kilometer run in a first-place time of 20:54.
Chad Badry of Nelson was seventh with other Nelsonites Shawn DeGroot 15th and Pierce Sharelove 16th.
Allison Schlosser was the top Nelsonite in the short course, finishing 18th overall. Schlosser was sixth overall in the female category.
“I had a good race,” said Schlosser. “I’ve never done a sprint distance before . . . I’ve only done the Olympic or Half, so it was really good.”
“I thought I do something a little shorter where speed is a factor so things went really well,” she added.
Stacy Bie of Quesnel won the women’s short course title in a time of 1:18.17.
Darci Miller of Fort McMurray was second with Nikki Jomha of Victoria third.
Karen Cambaliza of Calgary was fourth with Susanne Fraser of Rossland rounding out the top five.
Swimski trio tops long course
Team Swimski took the long course male crown with Last Minute Louie’s first in the long course mixed team race.
Our Civic Duty was first in the long course female race.
Short course team title went to McDucs Wedding Team with Team DeVries second and The Pickles third.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
