Joey Payeur
Dwayne Olson lives in Winnipeg and helps organize triathlons in Sioux Narrows.
On Sunday, he owned Point Park.
Olson took the lead early and left the pack behind to win the male division and finish first place overall with a time of 36:12 at the second-annual “Splash and Dash” event put on by the Rainy Lake Triathlon Club.
“This is the first time I’ve been in first after the swim and the first time I’ve ever won,” said Olson, who is the race director of the Sioux Narrows Paradise Triathlon each summer.
“I’m usually second in my age group. This is a great thrill for me.”
Olson was fire on water as he blazed through the 750m swim portion in 12:13, four seconds ahead of former Fort Frances Aquanaut Swim Club star Jillian Gustafson.
After the transition from wetsuit to running gear, he quickly extended his lead by blasting through the 5km run in 24:39, surprising even himself.
“Swimming is my specialty because I had a tibial plateau fracture which caused weakness in my knee,” explained Olson, who finished almost exactly five minutes ahead of the only other individual male participant, Bill Michl, who took second in the division in 41:10.
“But physiotherapy has worked wonders.”
Muskie female athlete-of-the-year Hailey Beaudry had the third-fastest run of anyone in the field to cruise to victory in the women’s division with a final mark of 36:59, more than 2.5 minutes quicker than her next closest female rival.
“It was kind of windy today, but that was OK, because I still had a stronger swim than I usually do,” said Beaudry, who was the fifth person out of the water in 13:52, but then tracked down and passed the trio of Gustafson, Penny McComb and Kaela Lowey on the run course with a time of 23:07 to become the first female to cross the finish line.
“I wasn’t expecting to be that fast in the water,” she continued.
“I figured I would be about 10 minutes slower. But some seaweed touched my legs and that made me go faster really quickly,” chuckled Beaudry.
McComb, the longtime skater and coach with the Border Skating Club, forsook technical merit and artistic impression on this day for teeth-gritting fortitude to end up in second in the division at 39:37 after a run of 25:58 following her swim of 12:55.
Gustafson was more than 1.5 minutes ahead of Beaudry coming out of Rainy Lake, but wound up in third after posting a time of 27:20 in the run for an overall mark of 39:37.
Dr. Lorena Jenks was fourth in the women’s division in 42:01, while Kaela Lowey landed in fifth (43:04).
Rounding out the women’s results were Clara Collier in sixth (44:22), Sandra Drennan of Emo in seventh (44:47) and Karen Dykxhoorn in eighth (45:52).
The team competition went to Team Wave Runner, consisting of Jocelyn Mueller and Britt Green, which topped its category with a mark of 39:05.
Mueller put in a solid swim of 17:05, while Green, who arrived shortly before race time, shook the sleep out of his eyes and put on a determined sprint in the final 200m to nip an unsuspecting Frank McComb of Team Young & Restless at the finish line by one second.
McComb and partner Sydney Chalifoux settled for second in 39:06.
Team Fish Out Of Water, consisting of Matthieu Collette on the swim and Karen Sliworsky on the run, was third in 42:20.
Fourth place went to Team Tie Dye, featuring Hannah Mueller swimming and Ginger Bragg running, in a time of 44:45.
None of the defending champions from last year’s inaugural event took part.
Women’s and overall champion Jennifer Hawley and the top team of Char Bliss and Melissa Belluz were absent, while defending men’s champion Jason Kabel served in an organizational capacity only on Sunday as he was committed to travelling to Duluth to see his son play in the final of a hockey tournament.
Race organizer Jeff Tilbury said he was pleased with the level of the participants involve this year, calling them a “very competitive group.”
“We saw some people new to this type of an event who I think were getting a taste for triathlon, which I found very hopeful,” stated Tilbury.
“The event itself received positive feedback from the competitors about the course and the setup.”
On the flip side, Tilbury admitted he was “disappointed and confused” when it came to the low turnout (19 last year, 18 this year).
That’s despite the creation this year of a youth division for ages 11-16, in which no one registered; the number of local residents Tilbury knows that regularly swim and run and the fact the event was moved from early September last year to mid-August.
“The confusing part is that people say we need things to do in the community and then they fail to come out and support the ones that are here,” he pointed out.
“I am very surprised that we had no youth participants and cannot figure out why,” continued Tilbury.
“Guess we will have to sit down as a race committee and consider that for the future.
“I am also disappointed that we could not draw any of our USA neighbors across to do our event,” he added.
“I thought, for sure, with Backus (Triathlon in International Falls) not going this year, and us having our event on the date they did theirs last year, that we might get some folks from there.
“I am not sure if it might have been a water issue this year that prevented people from coming out,” theorized Tilbury.
“One of our tasks will be to figure out how to promote the event differently for next year to get out to a wider audience.”
A possibility for improved attendance may be attached to the potential next year for the event to be upgraded to a full triathlon, with the ongoing work on the Noden Causeway east of Fort Frances reportedly scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
“I do know that triathletes can be purists, and hopefully with us trying to do a complete triathlon next year, that we will draw more interest and a larger field of participants,” said Tilbury.
“It takes a lot of effort to put on an event and we need people to come out and support us in order to move forward,” he re-emphasized.
“The race committee will be sitting down very soon as we need to start right away at developing a bike/road plan to present to the Town (of Fort Frances), the MT0, the O.P.P. and Triathlon Ontario (for sanctioning) in order to turn it into a complete triathlon.”
Would the conversion to a full triathlon also necessitate a name change for the event?
“It is very likely that we will need to consider a name revision for a triathlon and that will be one of the tasks for the race committee over the next while,” mentioned Tilbury, who expressed his gratitude to all the event sponsors and volunteers.
“Because without them, such an event is impossible.”
Tilbury’s focus now switches from organizer to racer as he heads to Pinawa, Man., for the Pinawa Free Spirit Triathlon.
If he can win the age 45-49 category in the sprint distance event, Tilbury will automatically qualify for the Canadian team that will travel to Chicago next for the 2015 International Triathlon Union World Triathlon Grand Final.
He will face a staunch challenge from Manitoba’s Marc Fournier, who had dominated that age group throughout the summer in the Wheat Province’s triathlon schedule.
“I finished second to Marc in Sioux Narrows (Aug. 9), so you never know,” mused Tilbury.
If he doesn’t win the category, Tilbury may still get on the team with a good enough time that would allow him to apply for and possibly receive one of the rolldown spots on the team, with those spots to be announced next month.
