Canada’s Para triathletes sprinted into the 2022 season with a double-medal performance on Saturday in Yokohama, Japan at the first World Triathlon Para Series race of the year.
Jessica Tuomela (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) and her guide Emma Skaug (Victoria) climbed onto the silver-medal step of the women’s visually impaired podium – a result which was also matched by Winnipegger Leanne Taylor in the women’s wheelchair classification.
Tuomela and Skaug battled through heavy rain throughout the 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre bike course and five-kilometre run to clock a finishing time of 1:10:38.
“I am really happy with today’s race. It was tough conditions out there for everyone,” said Tuomela, who teamed up with Skaug following her fifth-place finish at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. “Emma and I raced hard and worked well together. It was a huge learning race for us since this is only the second time that we have raced together. She is incredibly strong on the bike and that is so exciting! I can’t wait to see what we can do in the upcoming season.”
Spain’s Susana Rodriguez won the race with a time of 1:05:30.
Taylor also got the new Paralympic quadrennial off to a medal-winning start in her event. Racing through a steady downpour, Taylor stopped the clock at 1:13:26 for second place.
“The wet conditions definitely had me a bit nervous about this race. I had a strong swim and did my best to hold as much ground as I could on the bike,” said Taylor who was just over a minute behind second place while heading onto the third leg of the race. “It was a pretty big gap to close, but the run is where I feel the most comfortable and also where I feel the most joy, so I put my head down and did what I love to do (push hard in the racer). I’m happy to be taking home a silver medal and to be improving each time I get out there.”
Margret Ijdema of the Netherlands clocked the winning time at 1:11:33. Brazil’s Jessica Ferreira rounded out the podium with a time of 1:13:49.
With files from Triathlon Canada
Shaw wins two more medals, Gautier also on the podium at Para cycling World Cup
In Elzach, Germany, Keely Shaw of Midale, Sask. earned a silver in the women’s C4 time trial and a bronze in the road race this past weekend at the second stop on the Para cycling World Cup circuit. Marie-Claude Molnar of Longueil, Que. was fourth in both races.
It was the second straight weekend Shaw reached the podium in the time trial. It was a different style of race for Shaw. Rather than racing in a loop, the time trial was a one line 18 kilometre climb which she said before the race was a first in her career.
In the road race, her goal was to stay in the peloton the entire race and achieved her goal while American Samantha Boscoe won by a decisive margin.
Gautier, a 17-time world champion, bounced back from a fourth in the T2 (tricycle) time trial to win the bronze in the road race on Sunday.
Carla Shibley of Calgary and her pilot Meghan Brown were fourth in both the time trial and road race in the women’s tandem classification as was Matthew Kinnie of Riverview, N.B. in the H2 (handcycle) category. Kara Douville of Calgary was fifth in both women’s H4 races while Lowell Taylor of Lethbridge, Alta. and his guide Ed Veal posted a fourth and sixth.
Athletics Canada names Para team for Commonwealth Games
Veteran wheelchair racers Josh Cassidy of Guelph, Ont. and Tristan Smyth of Maple Ridge, B.C. lead a six-member Canadian Para athletics team named late Friday afternoon by Commonwealth Sport Canada and Athletics Canada for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
It is a third Commonwealth Games for both Cassidy and Smyth, both part of the squad in 2014 in Glasgow. Cassidy also raced in Delhi in 2010 and Smyth on the Gold Coast in 2018.
Also on the men’s team are sprinters David Johnson of Victoria and Zachary Gingras of Markham, Ont.
For the women, wheelchair racer Jessica Frotten of Whitehorse returns for a second straight Games and shot putter Sarah Mickey of Redcliff, Alta. makes her Commonwealth debut.
The 2022 Games will take place July 28 to August 8, 2022.
