Kootenay triathletes ready to race in Kelowna

With only one more sleep, the group of young Kootenay athletes is getting excited about representing Zone 1 at the 2008 BC Summer Games in Kelowna. A number of the athletes from the Cranbrook and Kimberley area are part of the Zone team and will be competing in the various sports. Kevin Nowottnick, trainer and coach of the Synergy Tri Club, will be taking a group of five young triathletes to swim, bike and run in Kelowna's Gyro Park.

There will be three different events and all triathletes will compete in all three. The first is an aquathon with 300 metre swim and 1 kilometre run. The duathlon leads the young competitors on a 1 kilometre run, a 5 kilometre bike ride and another 1 kilometre run. The triathlon on Saturday rounds off competition with a 400 metre swim, a 15 kilometre bike ride and a 3 kilometre run.

The qualifier for the Summer Games was the Kids Tri event at the Wasa Triathlon weekend in June. The five fastest ranked triathletes from the East and West Kootenay were eligible to form the Zone 1 team. The team members are Colin Ferrie, Carolyn Norton, Paul Swansburg, Rebecca Bermel and Luke Baxter. Most of the young athletes come from other sports, says Nowottnick and have only been training specifically for this event since the Wasa Tri.

For the last month and a half, the triathletes have been on a schedule of up to six days per week, with coaching sessions and solo workouts. Some of them, have also been training with the adult Tri Club members, Nowottnick explains. Since all the events are fairly short, the group has been focusing on doing a lot of speed intervals and high heart-rate sessions, he points out. Another part was brick training, where athletes train in at least two of the three disciplines in one workout and also practice the transition from one to the other.

This is the second time Nowottnick is taking Kootenay triathletes to the BC Summer Games. Last time, all qualifiers were from Trial and with all young athletes coming from the Cranbrook and Kimberley region this year, it has been an even more enjoyable experience this time around, the coach says. Being there, he was able to give a lot more hands-on experience and get a good impression of the triathletes.

"This group has quite a bit of talent," Nowottnick states. "They all have a lot of potential that could carry them quite far in this sport." He emphasizes that there will be a pretty strong field in Kelowna. The strongest teams, he believes, come from Vancouver, Victoria and the Okanagan where athletes can train year-round and have a larger population pool to draw from. "But I think we have some legitimate podium potential this time around," Nowottnick thinks.

"Our first goal is to go and have fun," the coach adds and says with that mindset, the young competitors will have an enjoyable trip and a great experience. Rebecca Bermel from Cranbrook admits she is really excited to go to the BC Games and plans to have a lot of fun. "I don't really care what position I get," she points out.

Bermel - who originally comes from the sport of Alpine Skiing - says she has already met some great people through triathlon and has been able to learn a lot from the more experienced athletes. She hopes to meet even more new friends in Kelowna. Rebecca Bermel will also take the opportunity and compete in the triathlon events in memory of her friend Chris Watson, a young lacrosse player who was recently killed in a tragic car accident.