Victoria’s Brent McMahon is the new Valley First Challenge Penticton half distance champion.
McMahon, former Canadian Olympian, crossed the finish line at Okanagan Lake Park Aug. 30, completing the 1.9-kilometre swim, 90-km bike and 21.1-km run in three hours, 50 minutes and 38 seconds.
McMahon bested the time of last year’s champion, Alistair Eeckman of 4:40.
“I had goals set for myself. I wanted to go out and I wanted to win this event,” said McMahon, who came out of the swim third in 22:04, then clocked a time of 2:14:08 on the bike and 1:14:28 on the run.
“It takes a lot of hard work to do that. There was great Canadians and great international athletes here. They didn’t make it easy on me.”
In second was Kelowna’s Trevor Wurtele at 3:53:52, followed by Boulder, Colorado’s Davide Giardini in 3:57:23 and Penticton’s Jeff Symonds in fourth at 3:58:50.
McMahon said he worked hard to stay ahead on the bike and had no intentions to let up on the run with Wurtele on his tail.
“It’s Trevor, I can’t give anything right now,” he said.
Jennifer Spieldenner of Ohio claimed the women’s championship. In second was Carrie Lester and in third was Lesley Smith.
Winning the full distance triathlon on the men’s side was Penticton’s Dave Matheson coming in at 9:36:33. Kamloops’ Yvonne Timewell, who won the Olympic distance of the Peach Classic in July, took the women’s side in 10:56:30.
— Emanuel Sequeira