Triathlon Canada Hands Out Inaugural Excellence Awards

Two Canadian athletes that battled a long road to qualify for the London 2012 Games were named the inaugural elite winners of the newly-named Triathlon Canada Excellence Awards for their performance over the last 12 months.

Kyle Jones, who made his Olympic debut in 2012 was named Male Triathlete-of-the-Year, while Kathy Tremblay captured the top female award thanks to a solid campaign that punched her second ticket to the Olympic Summer Games.

The 28-year-old Jones, of Oakville, Ont., had a sixth place finish at the Grand Final along with two top-15 performances on the World Triathlon Series, and with his first-ever World Cup victory.

Montreal’s Kathy Tremblay made her second-straight trip to the Summer Games following a best-ever start to the 2012 season. Battling to fight her way into top-25 over the last three years, the gutsy 30-year-old Tremblay captured her career-first World Cup victory in Ishigaki, Japan last spring, one week after posting her best finish on the World Triathlon Series when she was eighth at the season-opener in Sydney, Australia.

Triathlon Canada also recognized four athletes in the Under-23 and Junior race categories. Matt Sharpe, of Victoria., earned top honours in the Under-23 male category, while Joanna Brown, of Carp, Ont., was the top female in the women’s Under-23. Winnipeg’s Tyler Mislawchuk was the top junior male, while Amelie Kretz, of Blainville, Que., won the junior title.

As part of the awards make over, Triathlon Canada also renamed its Significant Contributor/Volunteer of the Year Award to the William J. Hallett Excellence Award in honour of the outstanding efforts and time commitment to Triathlon Canada’s past president, Bill Hallett.

The four first-time winners were: Jeff Schmoorkoff (Edmonton); Alexandre Saint-Jaim (Montreal); Greg Kealey (Ottawa); and Garth Millar (Saint John, N.B.).

Multi-Sport Male Athlete-of-the-Year awards were also handed out to Trevor Wurtele, of Kelowna, B.C.) and Magali Tisseyre, of St. Sauveur, Que.

Athletes in all age group race distance categories were also recognized on Friday. The following is a list of award winners in each age group of the various race disciplines.

Standard Distance Triathlon
Sue Huse (Edmonton) – 35-39 age group
Suzanne Chandler (West Vancouver) – 40-44 age group

Long Distance Triathlon
Anthony Frost (London, Ont.) – 50-54 male age group
Gail Burgess (Toronto) – 60-64 female age group
Carmel Tindale-Fox (Mississauga, Ont.) – 50-54 female age group
Milos Kostic (Regina) – 70-74 mail age group
Carol Peters (Delta, B.C.) – 60-64 female age group
Murray Macpherson (Calgary) – 60-64 male age group
Judy Andrew-Piel (Nepean, Ont.) – 50-54 female age group
Ann Barnes (New Westminister, B.C.) – 55-59 female age group

Duathlon
Francois Marceau (Valleyfield, Que.) – 40-44 male age group
David Field (Barry’s Bay, Ont.) – 55-59 male age group
Carolyn Silvey (Toronto) – 55-59 female age group
Anita Yates (Edmonton) – 60-64 female age group
Lynda Lemon (Welland, Ont.) – 65-69 female age group

Cross Triathlon
Dan Smith (Victoria) – 45-49 male age group
Christiane Bouchard (Montreal) – 50-54 female age group

Sprint Distance Triathlon
Mike Ellis (Victoria) – 75-79 male age group
John Simson (Rothesay, N.B.) – 65-69 male age group
Judy Lloyd (Kelowna, B.C.) – 65-69 female age group
Julie Curwin (Sydney, N.S.) – 45-49 female age group
Pamela-Ann Bachelder-St.Pierre (St-Gabriel-de-Valcartie, Que.) – 20-24 female age group

Paratriathlon
Female – Jennifer Hopkins (Ottawa)

Triathlon Canada is the governing body for triathlon in the country. Recognized as an Olympic medal sport since 2000 and Paralympic medal sport as of 2016, Triathlon Canada’s mandate is to promote, foster, organize and develop the sport of triathlon, and its related disciplines, in Canada. For more information on Triathlon Canada, please visit us at www.triathloncanada.com.