If you think swimming a couple of laps is exhausting, the Triathlon Club is definitely not for you. U of T’s Triathlon Club hosted the second annual Swim, Row & Go at the Athletic Centre last Sunday, pulling in 75 competitors from five universities across Ontario. Sunday’s race, which consisted of a 15-minute swim, eight-minute row (on the AC’s rowing machines) and a 15-minute indoor run, pitted competitors against each other, themselves, and the clock. Participants went all out to score as many distance points as they could in the allotted time.
The University of Toronto Triathlon Club (UTTC) took the championship spot by a narrow margin against some tough competition from Western (ranked top in the provincial circuit) and Queen’s. The UTTC fielded 20 athletes, who put up a strong placing in the student and non-student rookie, veteran and intramural categories for both sexes.
Tanya Sakharov, a PHE student at U of T, was the top finisher in the women’s intramural category. Catherine Ponting swam, pulled and ran her way to a first-place finish in the non-student rookie female category. Jason Boeki, who pulled off the second-fastest swim and second- fastest (by the narrowest of margins) row of the day, managed to take second-place in the non-student veteran male category, just behind James Loaring (who is, in all fairness, a professional triathlete).
U of T also took top honours in the relay category, with the team of Helene Couture and Catherine and Hetti Cheung putting down some serious mileage in the pool, on the ERGs (rowing machines) and on the track.
Holland Gidney and Tina Traini took first and second place respectively in the non-student veteran female category, with Holland posting the fastest women’s result of the day on the ERG (one of the fastest times for both sexes).
Toronto also swept the podium in the student rookie female category, with Robyn Mitchell, Amanda Mayo and Briana Illingworth (who posted one of the fastest rows of the day) taking gold, silver and bronze respectively and decisively.
The student rookie men distinguished themselves as well, with Steve Myers using a strong run to power his way into first place and Hamid Zebarjad rowing his way to a third-place finish in a very exciting race.
The veteran student male category was, as always, intensely competitive, and the results were exceedingly close. Thom Ringer recovered from a tough row to post the second-fastest run of the day (4,300 metres in 15 minutes), and managed to tie for third place with Tim Chaplin of Western. Nick Bradley finished just metres behind to take fourth place, powered by his strong swim and powerful row – also one of the fastest of the day.
With this strong performance and the emergence of a great core group of racing athletes, U of T has set itself up well to take top honours in the provincial championship and series finale at Western on March 22.
