National Championship for Groves and Whitfield

Lauren Groves and Simon Whitfield became the 2009 Canadian National Elite Triathlon Champions and winners of the ITU Pan American Premium Cup held at the Kelowna Apple event in B.C. The women’s race was a head to head battle between Groves and Kathy Tremblay. Groves would eventually pull away from Tremblay (2:05:07) in the late stages of the run to claim the victory (2:04:59). Paula Findlay was third (2:06:25), but was the top under 23 female.

Whitfield trailed Victoria’s Andrew McCartney coming out of the water, but caught up to him on the bike and ran a 31:15 10 km run to finish ahead of Oakville’s Kyle Jones (1:53:49) and Paul Tichelaar (1:53:49). McCartney earned first place in the under 23-race division.

“In spite of little taper and nervousness, I am very pleased with the result. It is the perfect motivational boost leading into the U23 World Triathlon Championships,” said McCartney. “I feel nutritionally, I am just about spot on, tactically, I am getting much wiser and, most importantly, my confidence in my capabilities and ability to perform under pressure has increased.”