The hometown kid was the runaway winner of the 29th annual St. Albert Triathlon.
The first of 119 finishers was James Thomson with a time of one hour, two minutes and 48 seconds in Sunday’s sprint-distance race at Fountain Park Recreation Centre.
“It feels pretty good,” the 18-year-old Thomson said. “I’m lucky that some of my other friends are not racing, but a win is a win.”
James Dean of St. Albert was the runner-up at 1:07:17 as the top 40 to 44 male and Nicolas Barbalan of Edmonton placed third at 1:08:45 as the leading 25 to 29 male.
Thomson was a going concern in the 750-metre swim at 10:30, 20-kilometre bike at 33:37 and five-km run at 18:40.
“I had a pretty strong swim, faster than last year, which I was pretty happy about. Transition was pretty smooth. The bike started off a little rough but I picked up some momentum and I was able to keep going,” said the King of the Hill bike winner on the Sir Winston Churchill Avenue hill at 1:52. “I drilled it up that hill and my legs were a bit dead after that but I started off my run really strong as well, but it’s a hilly course and I was able to kind of pace myself around it.”
Thomson finished third overall last year at 1:08:23 as the No. 1 U19 male with times of 11:08 in the swim, 36:20 for the bike and 20:56 for the run.
The winner was Trent Renshaw of Sydney, Australia at 1:06:20.
“For a sprint triathlon I always try to break an hour but this course is a lot hillier than some of the other ones, so I’m pretty happy with my time. It’s faster than last year so that’s always good. I always like to improve my times,” Thomson said.
As for the difference between last year and this year, “I’ve been training all winter and I’ve been racing all year so I’ve become a lot stronger. My bike has been a lot stronger and so is my run so I was able to use that and I’ve just become a lot faster in every segment of the course. Overall, I was just more prepared than I was last year,” said the Paul Kane High School graduate.
The chilly and windy overcast weather conditions didn’t really slow down the fourth-year member of the Edmonton Triathlon Academy.
“For the run it doesn’t really matter, it’s the same for everyone, but for the bike the crosswind and the headwinds make it tough on the bike. Tailwind is quite nice but this wind makes a big difference on the bike,” Thomson said.
This year’s triathlon marked the end of the season for Thomson, who did some series races in Quebec with his triathlon buddies and placed eighth in the 16 to 19 junior male division in a July 14 competition.
“To finish on a high today felt pretty good.”
Thomson moved to St. Albert 10 years ago from Guildford, England and adopted the triathlon as his sport of choice.
“It’s an endurance sport. It’s not the same each time. It’s different courses. You’re swimming, you’re biking, you’re running. The competition is different. There is nothing consistent about it with the competition so I like the challenges that way.”
FAST TIMES: The podium finishers in the try-a-tri (250m swim, 10-km bike and 2.5-km run) were Jordan Coen of Grimshaw with a first-place result of 39:20, Tracy Durie of Edmonton and Pamela Durdle tied for second at 47:26 and Alex Soloman of St. Albert was third at 48:41.
The tri-a-try featured 21 newbies.
The sprint team event consisted of five teams and the winner was Doing it for Dad (Roberts) at 1:12:45.
Visit www.zone4.ca for results of the St. Albert Triathlon.
