WATCH: Triathletes make high tempo return

The annual Fresh Air Kelowna Cherry Blossom Triathlon made an exciting return Sunday, with multi-discipline athletes taking to the course for the first time since 2019.

Over 200 racers from across the country took part on a sunny morning, with family and friends cheering them on.

It began at the H2O Aquatic Centre, where athletes were seeded by estimated swim time for their 700-metre, 14-lap dash up and down the pool lanes.

Then it was a quick jog to change into their cycling gear for three laps of the bike course totaling 22-kilometers around Gordon Drive, through Casorso Road, up Swamp Rd. then back down to Gordon.

The final leg was a five-kilometre run starting at the Capital News Centre (CNC) through Michaelbrook Golf Course and up Kamloops Road before heading on Swamp Rd, through Mission Greenway then back to Gordon for the home stretch.

It was a close finish for the top two racers.

In the end, Pentiction’s Martin Caron finished with the best time of one hour and four minutes, just 12 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, Carson McComb.

“I know him and he’s an excellent cyclist. I thought someone would come up with some good legs on the run and it would be hard,” Caron told Kelowna10. “I couldn’t see anyone, so I thought it was safe, but it was never safe because it was only 12 seconds.”

He managed to keep his momentum going throughout the final stretch after a tough bike ride.

“My power meter wasn’t working very well, and I realize on the run that I might have gone too hard. Then my legs got better after a few kilometres and did the best I could,” Carron said. “It was a good suffer, and I’m glad I didn’t slow down at the end,” he said. “I picked it up on the last kilometer. Thank God, I didn’t take it for granted.”

Alberta native Sharon Styles was the first woman across the finish line finishing in 11th place overall in a time of 1:11:06.

She told Kelowna10 the wins felt great and smaller races like these aren’t to be underestimated.

“Short doesn’t mean easier not at all. You’re going faster, working harder in a shorter amount of time,” Styles said. “You got to go out and keep up the good pace. It’s hard work but it felt good.”

Styles did the race with some friends and was looking to get some action in to start her season.

“We went to the Triathlon BC website, and we looked to see if there were any early season races we can come check out and then we saw this one We actually signed up on the very last day,” she said.

Race director Cory Krist said while this was a small to moderate size race, the excitement to bring it back again was very big.

“People have been training, staying fit for two years, usually the race is the reward and this is where you put that training to good work,” he said. “It’s so great to be back. Everyone’s been so excited, the support of the community to put this race on has been phenomenal after a two-year hiatus.”