Feature Article August 26, 2004
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Local kids thrive at Provincial Kids of Steelby Jeff Green
About 340 kids from across Ontario took part in the 3rd Annual Kids of Steel Triathlon at Sharbot Lake this past Sunday. Many of them were experienced triathletes intent on winning the provincial championship, but some of the local entries were top finishers.
Brett Myers of Harrowsmith
won the 6 / 7-year-old boys race in a time of 8 minutes and 58 seconds, almost a full minute ahead of his nearest competitor. Brett Myers had the fastest time in all three parts of the race. In the same race, David Cox from Clarendon, racing in his first ever triathlon, finished fifth with a time of 10:21
Karley Heyman, also of Harrowsmith, finished in a second place tie in the 10 / 11-year-old girl division. The winner of the race was Laurence Lamarche from Quebec, in a time of 35 minutes, six seconds. That put Karley Heyman into a virtual tie for the Ontario championship with Terry Lynne Korzienewski of Toronto at 35 minutes 58 seconds.
Two other members of the Heyman family raced as well. Karleys brother Benjamin finished 8th among 10 / 11-year-old boys at 35:42, and her sister Jessie, finished 27th for 8 / 9-year-old girls in 32 minutes flat.
There were two other members of the Myers family in the race along with Brett: older brothers Braydan, fourth among 8 / 9-year-old boys in 23:02, and Tyson, 20th among 12 / 13-year-old boys at 56:50.
Other local racers include: Samantha, Carlee, and Hailee Ferguson from Mountan Grove, Natalie Lambert from Harrowsmith and Sydney Asselstine from Hartington, Braydon Doyle and Roland Huneault from Sydenham.
Organizer John Balint was pleased with how the event went, and with the response from the local business community in Sharbot Lake.
There were people at the event from as far away as Windsor, and they all found it to be a beautiful setting for a triathlon, he said.
There were some complications staging such a large race on a Sunday morning, as it was necessary to put up a roadblock on Highway 38 for as long as 45 minutes at a time. In previous years, the triathlon used the Brewer road for cycling, but between the bridge construction on Brewer road this year and the state of the paving on the road, race organizers decided it would be safer to run the bicycle part of the race along Highway 38 all the way to the Crow Lake road, creating more of a backlog of vehicles.
All told there were 332 racers this year, all benefiting from ideal weather conditions. The triathletes all acknowledged the plaque to Simon Whitfield, a former Sharbot Lake triathlon champion who was Canadas gold medal winning triathlete from the Sydney Olympic games. The plaque sits at the Sharbot Lake beach.
Four days after the Kids of Steel, Whitfield raced well, but made a tactical error and he finished 11th in Athens.
