Grenada, 11th October, 2010: Five Grenadian athletes representing the Grenada Triathlon Association competed at the Barbados National championships this past weekend in both the sprint and Olympic triathlon events. The races started on time at 6 am Sunday on Brighton beach on the south coast of Barbados. Athletes competed in an Olympic course of 1500m swim, 40km bike ride, finishing with a 10km run; and a sprint course of 750 m swim, 20 km bike ride, and 5 km run. Competitive athletes also traveled from Trinidad, Martinique, Antigua, and of course Barbados.
First to compete in the sprint course from Grenada were National Champion Aislinn Noël and Mike Quinn. Both had very strong races winning their age groups. Aislinn took 5 minutes off her time since the race in Grenada this past May. Mike, despite a badly sprained thumb after a crash on the bike the week before, still improved on his Grenada performance by nearly 4 minutes.
The next race was the Olympic race with Grenadians Ric Hallam, Mark Scott, and Danny Donelan competing. Ric, in only his 4th triathlon, did the Olympic race for the first time and was only expected to learn the new distance. He still showed huge improvements, beating the Caribbean Sprint Champion that had previously beaten him in the sprint race in Tobago earlier this year by over 12 minutes. Mark Scott, already a strong swimmer and runner, had been training very hard on his biking strength and it showed on race day when he was able to comfortably win his age group. Danny Donelan, had huge improvements on his swim, putting him in a good position at the start of the bike. A strong cyclist, he was able to close the gap on all but 4 athletes as he set out onto the run. With a knee injury over the last month, Danny had done little to no run training and it appeared he would not medal, however he persevered and by the halfway point of the run Danny had run himself into the lead which he held to win the overall title.
Team Coach, Marc DeCaul said after the race “I’m very proud of all of our athletes, they have been training so hard and even exceeded my expectations. We went to Barbados and really made a statement about what Grenada Triathlon is all about.” The team is taking a 2 week break now before preparing for the Half Ironman in San Juan, Puerto Rico in March next year. Athletes in the Half Ironman have to swim 1900m, bike 90km, and run 21km, all in around 6 hours or less.
Having now swept the board in their last two International Triathlon events, and being self funded, the team is keen to attract local and regional sponsors to support them in the 2011 calendar including the upcoming 2011 Annual Grenada Triathlon competition, as well as the Ironman event. Anyone looking for more information about how to get involved with the team as an athlete and train with the team, or as a supporter, should Email marc@grenadatriathlon.com, or call 473.534.2646.
