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2013 Pharmasave Christina Lake Sprint Triathlon set for this Sunday

The Pharmasave Christina Lake Sprint Triathlon is set for this Sunday (June 23) at the Christina Lake public beach.
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Last year’s triathlon winner Simon Hofstetter (left) with John Mackey

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The June days are passing quickly and the Pharmasave Christina Lake Sprint Triathlon is set for this Sunday (June 23) at the Christina Lake public beach.

“The KidSprint event starts at 8:30 a.m. and the adults event starts following the KidSprint event at approximately 9:30 a.m.,” explained Lilly Bryant, program services co-ordinator with Grand Forks Recreation.

Bryant explained that the adults’ event is designed for those starting out triathlons, not to say that it isn’t a challenging course.

It begins with a 750 m swim in Christina Lake.

“The swim course is parallel to the beach so (triathletes) don’t have to go out to into the deep water – safety is a factor. We have that in place so you’re not feeling overwhelmed,” said Bryant.

Following the swim, athletes make their way to an area where their biking equipment is situated and head off to do 20 km on their bicycles.

“It’s a five-kilometre loop of the south end of the Lake, which is using Highway 3, Thompson Road and down onto West Lake Drive again, so they do four laps of that five-kilometre course,” Bryant explained.

To cap it all off, there is a five-kilometre run out West Lake Drive – 2.5 km out West Lake and back.

“It’s a very scenic run and it’s quite a nice run, overlooking the lake,” Bryant said.

She said that the weather wasn’t agreeable last year and the water was cold and that might account for the lower registration this year – as of last Thursday Bryant said there were 72 adults and 22 kids.

Deadline to register is today (June 19) at 4:30 p.m. and Bryant asks that on event day, motorists be mindful that there is a triathlon going on at Christina Lake.

“Just to make people aware that event is happening and please drive defensively and carefully within the hours of the event and please respect the traffic controllers out there because I know in the past we’ve had issues with the traffic,” said Bryant.

While it is the triathletes that make the triathlon at Christina Lake, volunteers also play a big role according to Bryant.

“If we didn’t have the volunteers, the event wouldn’t actually happen,” she said. “We rely on the community for their support to do the traffic control as well as the timing and it just all flows together and without that support of the community, we wouldn’t be able to run it.”



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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