Morning Star Staff
Vernon Tri Monsters athletes enjoyed a stellar triathlon season.
Junior (16-19yrs) performance stream athletes raced the final event in the TriBC Provincial Series, the Vancouver Triathlon, while Youth (U15) performance stream athletes were in Edmonton at the National Youth Triathlon Championships.
A number of younger Tri Monsters athletes (7-13yrs) braved the cold and rain at the Summerland Kids Of Steel Triathlon.
In Vancouver, Hannah Mehain raced the 300-m swim, 9.4-k bike and 2.5-k run earning second place in the women’s junior elite event. This place gave her enough points for a Provincial Series Champ title, to add to her Provincial Junior Champ title, finishing the series in first place.
Adam Bugera put in a very strong performance against the other junior male elite athletes, finishing runner-up, racing the same distance. Bugera earned points for a third-place podium spot in the Provincial Junior Series.
Athletes Braden Kersey, Keagan Ingram (Summerland), Natalya Ariano and Annika Ariano battled very cold temperatures, wet weather and the top Youth triathletes (aged 13-15) in Canada, in Edmonton.
Each put in some amazing performances in both the mixed triathlon relay, and individual events at the. The young athletes competed together as a team, each doing a 300-m swim, and 5-k bike and 1.5-k run in a relay style event. This U15 relay team held their own against Junior (16-19) and mixed Youth/Junior relay teams, placing seventh overall. temperatures hovering around 11 degrees.
In the male solo event with a sprint finish between two athletes who have been neck and neck all season, Braden Kersey came sixth overall in 33:37.0, with Keagan Ingram on his heels for seventh in 33:37.1. In the female event of the same distance, Annika Ariano finished sixth at 37:07 while her twin sister Natalya finished 19th in 42:21.
These events were the last of the season for the young Tri Monsters athletes. They are putting away the wet suits and all looking forward to next year’s racing season.