Canada Games : Trying to be the first
Published Tuesday June 30th, 2009
Bathurst athletes among the favourites heading into New Brunswick Canada Games triathlon trials
When triathlon makes its Canada Games debut this summer, Patrick Gauthier and EeVe Stever both hope to be at the starting line.
The pair of 16-year-olds, who both just finished Grade 11 at Ecole Secondaire Nepisiguit, are off to Fredericton this weekend to take part in the New Brunswick Canada Games trials for the sport on Sunday. If either wins Sunday's race, they will earn spots on Team New Brunswick for the Canada Games, being held from Aug. 15 to 29 on Prince Edward Island.
"If you win in Fredericton, then you are automatically on the team," explained EeVe's mother Diane Guignard, who has been asked to be an assistant coach for New Brunswick triathlon team at the Games. "But if you don't win, you are not automatically not on the team, because we need three men and three women under 19 to compete at the Canada Games. If you don't win, then you go to the nationals and they take the average of your time from the two events to fill in the second and third spots."
Both Gauthier and Stever are favourites heading into the Canada Games trials after posting top times at a triathlon in Montreal last month. Gauthier finished the event in a time of one hour, three minutes and 14 seconds. No Canada Games eligible athlete completed a triathlon faster in New Brunswick over the past year.
Stever's time in Montreal was an hour and 16 minutes and the best previous girls time in the province over the last year was an hour and 23 minutes.
"They were shooting for that," said Guignard.
Athletes will be competing in the sprint distance at the Canada Games, meaning each will need to swim 750-metres, travel by bike for 20-kilometres and finish with a 5-k run.
Gauthier first got involved in the sport two years ago, after giving the Chaleur Triathlon's Kids of Steel event, for those 15 and under, a try.
"I was a good runner and biker...so I decided to try the kids of steel," explained the son of Kenneth Gauthier and Rose Hannan of South Tetagouche. "Then I got interested and started swimming. Now it is my main sport."
Stever was a competitive swimmer who wanted to try something different.
"Not everybody can do a triathlon so it was really a big thing for me to finish my first one," said the daughter of Guignard and her husband, Lee Stever of Bathurst. "I did my first one at Parlee Beach last summer and finished in an hour and 36 minutes, then I did one in Tracadie-Sheila in 1:28. This year in Montreal, I took 12 minutes off my time. That was a big deal."
Both athletes have been training a lot together and say their different sport backgrounds have complemented each other well.
"We give each other tips," said Gauthier, who completed his first of seven full triathlons last summer in Fredericton. "I did a pretty good time in Montreal, but my goal this year is to break an hour. If I can do that I could break top 10 in Canada."
It won't be the first time Guignard attends the Canada Games. A swim coach for more than 20 years, she has been part of Team New Brunswick in different capacities over that time.
"It is really really exciting, this is the first time triathlon is going to be at Canada Games," she said. "So I wasn't opposed to being part of that, obviously. To do something a little different is exciting."
And she has her daughter to thank for the opportunity.
"I got into this because EeVe got into it, and I've got some athletes that are interested in it," she explained. "So I started doing a little bit of research and finding some meets that they could go to and getting a little education to help them out. My only intent was to help my kids through it. But I've got a lot of years and experience in coaching, and it is a fairly new sport for the young kids, so any expertise they could draw on they were really appreciative to have it."
She also things both Gauthier and her daughter have a very good chance to be at the Canada Games.
"I think they have both done really well. I think they are in good shape and I think they have done what they need to do," she said. "I am not a great triathlete coach, but I think I'm a fairly good coach. I've done my research and they've done the training that I think they need to do and I expect them to perform well."
"Triathlon is something where your chain can come off your bike, you can lose your goggles in open water, you can fall off your bike," she concluded. "It is a one hour and 15 minutes event and a lot of things can go wrong. So, do I think they are prepared physically to get on that team, absolutely. Is everything going to go 100 per cent the way we are planning, I'm not sure."
It is going to be a busy weekend for Guignard, who will also be coaching 18 members of the Bathurst BLAST Piranhas Swim team at the the East Coast Long Course Swim Championships in Saint John.
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