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Preview: This weekend’s inaugural Ottawa Triathlon hosts new CAMTRI cup race and national championships

July 21, 2016
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The brand new Ottawa Triathlon makes its debut this weekend and as anticipated, Canadians make up the majority of the male and female elite fields for this exciting ITU CAMTRI continental cup race. Ottawa Triathlon is also hosting national standard and short course championships this year and for the first time ever, the ITU has turned the age-group sprint into a draft-legal race.

Set at Dows Lake, less than three km from Parliament Hill, the course features a single-loop swim for age-groupers and double loop for sites. Age-groupers will take on a flat bikes course that passes the Rideau Canal and Carlton University once, while the elites’ course is 2.7 km out-and-bike completed multiple times. The run course is a loop for age-groupers and for elites uses the bike course again for a more spectator-friendly experience.

The CAMTRI continental cup elite fields are packed with Canadian talent. Junior sensation Xavier Grenier-Talavera leads the men but faces some tough competition in Bermuda’s Jason Wilson and countrymen Matthew Sharpe and Russell Pennock. Like Sharpe and Pennock, Grenier-Talavera has been hitting the WTS circuit this season. He also has a win and two silver medals to his name from other continental cup races this year.

Dominika Jamnicky and Joanna Brown, who bother were serious contenders for a spot on the Rio-bound Olympic team, will face off against each other and field with only three non-Canadian athletes. Jamnicky and Brown both have a handful of podium finishers to their name and it’s likely we’ll see one of them take gold.

TMC will be posting live updates from the event all weekend so be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.