The Cherry Blossom Triathlon was a success at Kelowna’s H2O Fitness Centre.
Martin Caron from Penticton won the race in the men’s division and overall with a time of one hour four minutes.
For the women, Sharon Styles from Alberta took gold with a time of one hour 11 minutes.
The oldest participant in the triathlon was 76-year-old Bruce Handcock of Kelowna.
“Doing this sort of thing is just a goal to keep you going and keep you from getting too lazy and too fat.”
Handcock said he’s done about 20 triathlons, including the Cherry Blossom one multiple times, but this is his first race in a number of years. “I hadn’t done an event since Ironman Arizona 2016, and then with all the COVID-19 and all the other stuff I just started getting back into shape.”
Regardless of his time, Handcock feels proud to have raced.
Awards were presented by Canadian Olympian Melindi Elmore who is also the race director. She noted that the men’s U20 and the women’s 65-69 divisions were both empty this year.
“Usually the U20 and over 70 categories are a little bit quieter. We hope that we can get all age groups involved in the sport.”
After two years without the event, Elmore is glad to see everyone back together.
“When you see everyone smiling and laughing and sticking around at the end and in good spirits, then it’s all worthwhile.”
Final race results can be viewed at StartLineTiming.com.
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