C3 club produces top results at national triathlon championships

"You work hard all winter long to get a chance to race in your home province, in front of family and friends and the national triathlon championships were a smashing success," said former Olympic coach Barrie Shepley. The local C3 Canadian Cross Training Club has been putting on the country's biggest kids race for seven years. Last month's Kinetico Kids of Steel Triathlon was the biggest in North America once again.

But putting on a national triathlon championship with athletes from all over North America is a different issue. The Fitness 101 National Triathlon Championship had the U.S. national team, the Mexican national team, the Barbados national team and athletes from every Canadian province.

Local triathlon star Sean Bechtel had the day's fastest swim and bike and ended up national silver medalist in the prestigious event. This was Bechtel's 4th medal at the National Triathlon Championships and his first year of racing professionally. Over the winter, Bechtel lived in Tucson, Arizona to do his winter training and currently uses a high-altitude tent to further stress his aerobic capacity.

"Sean is one of the toughest guys I have ever met and his medal this weekend in an incredibly deep field is a testament to the hard work he did all winter," said Shepley. Bechtel had three C3 elite teammates in the top eight of the National Sprint Championships.

"One of the important roles that Sean plays in the sport's development is the role model he is for younger athletes," said Shepley.

Younger C3 Junior athletes had a banner day at the National Canadian Junior Championships. Andrew Yorke was Canada's silver medalist and helped lead Team Canada Juniors to a gold medal team victory over the highly regarded American Junior Team.

"Sean's help and motivation over the past few years made a big difference to my performance this past weekend," said Andrew Yorke. Yorke was last year's National Junior Duathlete of the year, and will be starting McMaster University this fall where he will swim and run for the university.

C3 placed four junior men in the top 20 of the National Junior Championships and and all of Ontario's top juniors came out of the highly regarded program with Tyler Bredschneider, Mark Bechtel and Chad Ruby all having banner days.

To top the day off, local age group triathlete Geoff Sullivan and his relay team won an all-expense-paid trip to the U.S. to represent Canada at the world's biggest triathlon in Chicago in August. The region has become renown for executing great races and the local C3 Canadian Cross Training Club wants to thank the many volunteers, athletes, sponsors and spectators from the area who participated in the Fitness 101 National Triathlon Championships.

While the Nationals are over, the C3 group continues to help novice kids and adults get started in swimbike run activities. If you are of any age, and are interested in getting started, you should check out the C3 Web site at www.c3online.ca or call the C3 offices at 905- 838-2662.