By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The final installment of the Ironman Canada-Penticton wheeled its way through Oliver and Osoyoos on Sunday for the last time since it kicked off in the Okanagan in the early 1980s.
The event saw more than 2,000 athletes from Canada, the US, Germany, UK and as far as Australia. Canadian Lionel Sanders finished first in the men’s pro division with a time just shy of 7 hours (6:57:09) followed by Australia’s Sam Appleton (7:05:37) and Jason Pohl from Canada coming in third (7:15:44).
On the women’s pro side, two Americans finished first and second – Sarah True (7:52:29) and Jodie Robertson (7:59:38) – followed by Canadian Deborah Eckhouse in third (8:04:19).
Because of the unusually cold weather that set in on Saturday the 3.8 km swimming portion of the competition in Okanagan Lake was cancelled as the water temperature was deemed too cold according to regulations upheld by World Triathlon and TriBC. These rules state that if the water temperature is 11.9°C or lower the swim must be cancelled.
Ironman Canada announced the cancellation just half an hour prior to the start of the event and about an hour and half after it had shortened the swim from 3.8 km to 900 metres with a 55-minute cut-off and made wetsuits mandatory.
The resulting event consisted of a 180 km bike course that took riders from Penticton south as far as Osoyoos, over Richter Pass to Keremeos and north back to Penticton and a 42.1 km running course along the Kettle Valley Trail and through Penticton.
Last year’s event was cancelled due to wildfires.
The Penticton Ironman has a storied history, kicking off back in 1983 as the first triathlon with Ironman distances. Just three years later Penticton hosted the first official Ironman outside of continental North America (Hawaii had the first on the continent).
While the Penticton event is moving to Ottawa in 2025 within the region competitors still have options including the Ironman 70.3 Victoria or Ironman 70.3 Calgary.
