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Race Recap: St. Anthony’s Triathlon

April 25, 2016
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Canadian triathletes toed the start line in St. Petersburg, Florida yesterday for St. Anthony’s Triathlon, an iconic independent race with a fast Olympic distance course. Despite Sunday’s WTS Cape Town being one of two WTS events left in the Olympic qualification process, no Canadian Rio-hopefuls chose to line up in South Africa to chase qualification points. For many, right now is a time to rest and recover before making strong showings at WTS Yokohama next month.

St. Anthony’s Triathlon

Some of triathlon’s strongest long distance competitors showed up for the 33rd annual St. Anthony’s Triathlon to test their speed in a shorter distance before some of the major 70.3 and full distance races kick off later this season.

Canadian-born Alicia Kaye, a former ITU athlete who won the race in 2013, narrowly missed the top of the podium and finished second behind American Sarah Haskins by 23 seconds.

Lauren Goss rounded out the women’s podium in third, but the top 15 boasted several other strong names. Mirinda Carfrae just missed the podium, finishing fourth in 2:02:20. Canada’s Kirsten Marchant, who specializes in the Olympic and half distance, finished 11th in 2:09:43.

We had expected to see big things from Magali Tissyere, fresh off her win at the Ironman 70.3 South American Championship. Unfortunately, the Quebec-born athlete didn’t have the day she was hoping for, accidentally heading off course on the bike.

On the men’s side, it was an all-American top ten headed by Cameron Dye, who successfully defended his title from last year.

Canada’s John Erik Rasmussen was hoping to make a strong early season statement with his appearance at St. Anthony’s, but also had an unfortunate race experience. Despite crashing in T1, he battled back to finish in 13th in 1:54:15. Rasmussen told us back in January that he is looking to make his debut on the WTS circuit later this year.

Canadians are gearing up for the final WTS event in Yokohama in mid-May and several upcoming 70.3 races including St. Croix, the North American Pro Championship  and Mallorca.