A pair of Victoria triathletes swept the first triathon medals ever handed out at the Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops last week.
Claremont secondary grad Hillary Wille won gold in the women’s and Oak Bay’s Lehm Maguire won the men’s on the first day of the Games, Saturday, Aug. 6.
Wille’s was also the first gold medal of the Summer Games, which bring together 2,300 athletes from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory.
Victoria triathletes Megan Kinghorn won the women’s bronze and Connor Foreman won the men’s silver.
“I was a swimmer before I was a triathlete so I knew I'd be strong in the swim," said Wille, who was first out of the water. I had a bit of a slow transition but I made up for it on the hills."
Wille’s winning time on the hilly course was 1:07.31. Maguire’s was 1:01:56.
On Tuesday (Aug. 9), Victoria athletes swept the triathlon’s team event with Wille and Kinghorn winning the women’s gold with Maya Munzar of Cobble Hill and Maguire and Foreman joining Jordan Kinghorn and winning gold in the men’s team event.
University of Victoria Vikes track team member Stephanie Trenholm set a Western Canada Summer Games record in the 1,500 metre run with a time of 4:27.86. Fellow Vike Brittany Therrien won bronze in the 1,500m medal.
Brittany's brother Cody, who will suit up for the Vikes this fall, won silver in the men's 1,500m.
Mount Douglas grad and UVic Vike Hannah Swift pole vaulted to 3.3 metres for sixth while Oak Bay High’s Kira Craig settled for ninth at 3.1 metres, below her personal best of 3.5.
Another Claremont grad, David Nykl, helped his four-man team to silver in the men’s K4 canoe race on Sunday and took bronze in the K1 solo canoeing event on Tuesday.
Victoria men were deadly in the strategic-minded 800 metre race on Tuesday as Reynolds grad and Vikes athlete John Pratt won gold in one minute, 52.83 seconds, just ahead of White Rock’s Sean Keane and another Vike, Thomas Riva in third.
The Games wrap up on Aug. 14.