I promise to post after Friday's 1st Mountain Stage at the Tour, where Lance and Alberto and the rest of the peloton finally will hit some big hills. But this post will be all about triathlon, running, swimming, and non-Tour de France stories...and I'll try to keep all the points to 3 sentences or less!
Okay, first off, a young Canadian is becoming the new face of Canadian swimming. Amanda Reason, only 15 years old, broke the 50m breaststroke world record by .08 seconds this week, becoming the first Canadian swimmer in 21 years to break a long-course (50m pool) world record. In doing so, she joins her fellow breaststroker Annamay Pierce (who earlier this year set the world record in the 100m short course) as the new stars of Canadian swimming! Great job Amanda! Did i mention she's only 15?
In other swimming news, Michael Phelps is proving that his little break from swimming this past winter is not really affecting his 2009 season. On Wednesday he won both the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly at the US Swimming Nationals but was disappointed to not better his world records in either event (although he did swim the best time in the world for both events). On Thursday, he finally did break a world record, lowering the world record in the 100m freestyle to 50.22 seconds. Unreal.
Okay, enough swimming talk. Let's move on to some quick Athletics highlights. Watch this video...
Ok, Usain Bolt ran the 4th fastest 200m ever. In the rain. And simply destroyed the field that included 3 Olympic medalists. He is the Chrissie Wellington of sprinting. Can anyone ever push him?
More Athletics news...and it's all bad. First it was Tyler Christopher pulling up lame during the 400m event at Canadian Nationals. Then it was his coach quitting to take a new job with UK Athletics (his first coach also left for UK Athletics last year). That makes at least 4 top-notch Canadian coaches to have left Canada for Great Britain in the past year. Brutal. Tyler Christopher was the 2008 World Indoor Champion in the 400m and is now in tough to even get to the 2009 Worlds.
Oh yeah, congrats to Perdita Felicien for winning the 100m Hurdles title at the Canadian champs in Toronto in June. She finally beat her new rival Priscilla Lopes-Schliep in the final and appears back to the shape that made her world champion way back in 2003. And hopefully Perdita and Priscilla can share the podium in Berlin next month at Worlds.
Some breaking month-and-a-half-old news that I forgot to post. Deriba Merga, who won Boston Marathon in April, came to Ottawa in May to try and challenge the World 10K Record. He missed the record (27:01 for anyone who wants to try it) by 23 seconds. However, he did set a world record for the 8K distance, as he covered it in 21 minutes and 48 seconds (which makes his average km go by in 2 minutes and 43 seconds). I thought it warranted a mention!
Triathlon season is flying by, and so many races to report on. But first, we have one less guy wearing gloves and white tights to cheer on at Kona. Torbjorn Sindballe, the uber-biking Dane, has been forced to retire due to a heart condition. He has a moderate leak of his aortic valve, and the risk of serious injury was too high to continue his racing career. So we say goodbye to "Thunder Bear" and wish him well.
Okay, Ironman races have been happening around the world. The biggest mid-season races occur in Germany every summer, with Ironman Germany having happened last weekend and Challenge Roth coming up this weekend. Ironman Germany had a showdown between Chris McCormack and Eneka Llanos upstaged by Timo Bracht, who broke the course record to beat Llanos by a 50 seconds. On the women's side, it was Sandra Wallenhorst who broke 9 hours and defeated Yvonne Van Vlerken by 4 minutes. Very impressive wins by both Germans! This weekend in Roth we see Chrissie Wellington try to keep her undefeated streak alive (she's at 6 Ironman wins in a row) in Roth against a women's field that includes Belinda Granger and Erika Csomor, while Normann Stadler leads the men's field in his first Iron-distance race since Kona.
The other mid-year Ironman races in Japan, France, and Austria didn't really have super-competitive fields.
This weekend in triathlon features two huge races, on opposite sides of the Atlantic. On Saturday, most of the top North American athletes will be racing at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis. With $20,000 to the winner, the men's field is pretty deep, with Greg Bennett, Andy Potts, Matt Reed, and Craig Alexander all competing in the non-drafting race. Unfortunately, I think Canada is sitting out this race.
The other big race (actually it's much bigger) this weekend takes place in Kitzbuhel, Austria. It's race #4 in the ITU World Championship Series, and most of the global stars are taking part. The men's race goes on Saturday and includes Alistair Brownlee (going for win #3 in a row in the WC Series), Javier Gomez, Jan Frodeno, Brad Kahlefeldt, Bevan Docherty, etc. The start list also includes Canadian men Brent McMahon and Paul Tichelaar, who might be making his 2009 ITU debut.
The women's race takes place on Sunday in Kitzbuhel includes Vanessa Fernandes, Hollie Avil, Lauren Groves of Canada, and Emma Moffatt. Vanessa Fernandes started her 2009 season last week at the European Championships, where she finished third. It was the first time in 6 years that she didn't win! The other Emma, Emma Snowsill, has a bit of an injury and is sitting out. Too bad, we have yet to see Snowsill and Fernandes in the same race yet this year. Also notable in the women's race is Edmonton's Paula Findlay racing her first ITU World Championship Event. Good luck to all!
Okay, that's it for today! Enjoy the races!
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