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Catching up with Ottawa Race Director Richard Price

Christian Triquet, Ottawa councillor Jean Cloutier, Samantha Klus, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, Kaitlyn Jones and Ottawa councillor Mathieu Fleury
Christian Triquet, Ottawa councillor Jean Cloutier, Samantha Klus, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, Kaitlyn Jones and Ottawa councillor Mathieu Fleury

With over five years of experience putting on some of the world’s biggest triathlon events, Richard Price will serve as the race director for the Ottawa Triathlon this summer, an event that serves as the national championship and will also host a elite CAMTRI race.

Price’s race credentials are impressive – he worked on the Olympic Games in 2012, numerous world cup races and last year’s Pan Am Games. We caught up with Price earlier today at the official announcement of the national championships in Ottawa.

Race director Richard Price.
Race director Richard Price.

“The venue here is just stunning,” Price says. “It’s second to none anywhere in the world for a big city triathlon. I think we’ll be able to showcase the city and the age group athletes will ride around some amazing sites in Ottawa. Then we’ll make it smaller and bring it down to our elite format for the junior, youth and CAMTRI races – all those things are going to be showcased around the lake here.”

It comes as no surprise that with his background Price has come up with a particularly spectator-friendly race for the elite competitions here in Ottawa.

“We have a great showcase here at the pavilion,” he says – referring to Dow’s Lake Pavillion, which will be the centre point for all the action. “The swim course is really narrow so people will be able to watch that from either side. We have elite transition right outside our venue here. The bike course is an out and back course with the transition right in the middle. They’ll be doing multiple laps of a five km course. The run course will be the same course, but we’ll just be narrowing it down. It will all be fast and furious, but allow the spectators to watch the event.”

The race weekend schedule has also been designed to make it easy for athletes to not only race, but also have a chance to check out the exciting elite competition.

“We’re hoping that everyone is going to stick around,” Price says. “The plan was to put the elite events in the afternoon so people can do the standard distance in the morning, or arrive early for their competitions on the next day. It’s going to be ideal. We’re running things back to back, so there won’t be a lot of gaps in there. On Sunday we’re doing a mixed relay as well. Anyone who’s seen a mixed relay knows how fast and furious that can be. We’re hoping that on the Sunday people will stick around to watch that. We’ve also got Kids of Steel races – we’re trying to engage athletes from as young as 5 all the way up to the youth age group (14/15).”

Price has been impressed with the amount of support the race has received from the city and region and is very excited about the potential of the event.

“I think this event is going to be a success for not just Ottawa, but Canada as well.”