An auspicious debut hints at Canada’s next big thing in long-course triathlon.
From modern pentathlon to rowing around England to ... triathlon star?
Photo by:
Sara Kempner
Laughter and bewilderment. That would have been the reaction you got if you told 13-year-old Luke Tasker that in a decade, he’d be living in Canada and would be a rising star in triathlon. At the time, he was living on his family’s farm near Clitheroe in the North of England, and was a very active child. By age 13, he was already an eight-year veteran in a swim club that produced Olympians. The 200 m freestyle was his specialty.
The grind of a dozen swims-per-week for six years got to the young Tasker. He became bored and looked for new challenges. One presented itself in the form of modern pentathlon, the event where you swim, fence, ride a horse, shoot a pistol and run.
Armed with a borrowed gun from a local shooting range, Tasker showed up at his first event. He won it and, for a few years, he participated in both sports, but had more success at pentathlon, which he fully committed to.
If you are wondering how a teenager affords all the equipment for modern pentathlon, as it turns out, he was able to buy second hand gear and, at the competitions, the organizers supplied the horses.
Tasker enjoyed success in modern pentathlon and travelled around the world to compete. After graduating from high school, he attended University of Bath, the UK’s main training centre for the sport. While at Bath, he split his time and energy between his studies and his goal to make the Olympic Team.
He earned the degree, but not the Olympic spot, so he retired from pentathlon and embarked on a grand adventure.
Tasker and some friends devised a fundraising scheme of mythological proportions. As a group, they circumnavigated the island of Great Britain in a rowboat. They succeeded in their 2,000 mile quest, raised $50,000 for the Nuvasive Spine Foundation, and had experiences of a lifetime.
After that life-changing expedition, Tasker was admitted to Canada on a work permit and parlayed one adventure into another. His plan was to go to Canada for a year, work for the summer, and ski over the winter.
He enjoyed the lifestyle so much that one year became three, skiing during the winters and planting trees in the summers. Eventually, Tasker settled in Vancouver in 2021 and he became a firefighter with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services.
Tasker embraced his new hometown and career. He began exploring it on his bicycle and found friends to ride with. Soon he was riding the epic routes near Vancouver, including the Triple Crown Challenge, featuring ascents of Cypress, Grouse and Seymour mountains.
Maybe it was the comradery on the rides or maybe it was the inspirational scenery, but Tasker’s competitive spirit was rekindled. He began thinking about triathlon as a new passion. He had done one as a youngster in the UK and won it, so Tasker started swimming and running again, then signed up for the 2024 Ironman 70.3 Victoria event. Tasker’s plan for the summer was to introduce more structure to his training so he could perform well in Victoria. Things were going so well he jump-started his return to competition by entering the Cultus Lake Half Iron.
Although Tasker’s training was consistent, it was hardly methodical.
“I was just winging it, with long runs and bikes, and swimming at the Second Beach Pool in Vancouver,” he said.
A few weeks of haphazard training later, Tasker showed up on a cool and sunny September morning in the Fraser Valley, ready to put his training to the test. Four hours and ten minutes later, the test results were in.
Many things went wrong that day, starting with Tasker questioning his swim pacing. He thought because of the massive lead he had over the rest of the field, he had gone much too hard. His other freshmen foibles included dropping gels, finding out his cycling shoes were too tight, having one shoe on his foot and the other on his bike while getting into T2, and then cramping as he started the run. All those factors didn’t matter as he handily won the race and established a course record.
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When asked about how that very unexpected result affected him, Tasker said it inspired him to take training more seriously and set his sights higher.
Having only completed two triathlons, some might be skeptical of Tasker’s long-term prospects in the sport as consistent success requires not only lung capacity, but mental tenacity.
As it turns out, he has both.
Leo Forster, with whom Tasker rowed around Great Britain, saw evidence of that tenacity while Luke was rowing during the “midnight shift.” Somehow the autopilot had been turned off and the boat was rowed into a tidal whirlpool. Waves were spinning the boat around; water was crashing in, and it seemed they were doomed. Action had to be taken to avert disaster. Forster went for the radio to put out an emergency call. Tasker took a different approach.
He yelled at the crew to get at the oars and row like crazy.
“I’ve never seen anyone row so hard,” Forster said. “By some miracle, we popped out the other side without capsizing. I’m sure had Tasker not been on the oars that night, things would have ended up very differently.”
Buoyed with Tasker’s courage and confidence they completed the voyage.
As he embarks on his new athletic adventure, he will need to exploit both his physical and psychological strengths to succeed, and that’s the most compelling part of this story.
Even with his mishmash training regimen and a plethora of errors on course, his win last September sent a message to the BC triathlon community that there was a new face in town.
Ed. note: Last month Tasker won Ironman 70.3 Victoria in 4:14:35.
This story originally appeared in the 2024 Triathlon Magazine Buyer’s Guide.
Kevin Heinz is a regular contributor to Triathlon Magazine.