Former champion returns for triathlon

In high school she was a good athlete with a great attitude. Throughout her university career at Montreal's McGill University, she showed that her work ethic would carry her a long way. In 2004, the St. Catharine's native ran her way onto the Athens Olympic Games team with one of the sport's gutsiest runs ever. Since Athens, the Canadian national champion has focused her attention on the longer triathlon distances and last year won the 1/2 Ironman World Championships in Florida.

"I love the pain of 4-5 hours of racing and making everyone else on the course hurt if they want to go with me," said Samantha McGlone. The bilingual Olympian head to the Hawaii Ironman in October to test her fitness at the world's toughest race. "Sam is a very unique athlete who can go fast at the shortdistances, the intermediate distances and the longer Ironman race distances," said former Olympic Coach Barrie Shepley.

"Sam won the Caledon Triathlon race in 2005 and having her back in 2007 is a real honour."

McGlone will not have it easy at the June 30 pro race as Quebec's Kathy Tremblay, a member of this year's Pan American Games Team is in great fitness and loves the short-faster distance races.

Tremblay won a bronze medal at last year's World Cup Triathlon in Mexico, and has placed top 10 at the World Championships. The Fitness 101 National Sprint Championship race for the women is expected to be a battle of the fast swimmers who will be getting away early on the swim and bike, and McGlone and a few other world-class bike/runners who will be trying to catch-up from behind.

"To have this kind of racing happening in the Peel area for local spectators to see for free is incredible," said Shepley.

The local Kinetico Kids of Steel Triathlon has been an important growth opportunity for regional athletes to develop their start. The June 30 race will be hosting the National Junior Championships and a large group of C3 athletes have a legitimate chance of top 10 finishes. Those athletes include Andrew Yorke, Tyler Bredschneider, Kerrie Ann Delaney, Chad & Krista Ruby, Taylor Reid and Mark Bechtel. Athletes who qualify, will be headed to the World Championships in Hamburg Germany in August.

Local athlete Sean Bechtel will be one of the top ranked men going after the $10,000 prize purse in the Fitness 101 National Championship Race.

Bechtel has been on the podium several times this year racing around the world and recently finished third in the Muskoka International Triathlon.

"Our race is much more than just the pros," said race director Greg Pace. The June 30 race will start off with a youth mini-tri at 8 a.m., followed by a sprintadult novice triathlon midmorning. The best 16-19- year-old juniors in Canada will be racing for World Championships Spots on team Canada in the early afternoon. "We really wanted to attract novice triathletes to the event and we have created a 3 person mini-relay category to let everyone get involved in the weekend," said Pace.

Just for participating in the event, relay-team members have a chance to win a 3 day trip, flight/hotel and race entry fee to the Aug. 24-26 Chicago Triathlon.

For more, e-mail info@c3online.ca.