CALIMA, COL.—A crop of rising stars in Canadian triathlon will return home from the Americas Triathlon Championships with a bag full of medals.
Olympian Emy Legault (L’Île Perrot, Que.) battled through the gruelling Olympic distance course in Calima, Colombia to win the bronze medal in the women’s elite race. Sophia Howell (Airdrie, Alta.) placed seventh overall to secure the silver medal in the U23 division. Both Canadian women were part of Canada’s silver-medal winning relay team on Sunday.
“It was a good race today. We had a great swim. There was a group of six with three Canadians in there that was able to break away so that was pretty cool. We worked hard to gain as much time on the bike and then it was all about patience on the run, and then I pushed as hard as I could,” said Legault, who teed up her season racing the World Triathlon Championship Series last month. “That was the hardest Olympic distance race I have ever done. It was super hard.”
The 29-year-old Legault completed the 1.5-kilometre swim, 40-kilometre bike and 10-kilometre run in a time of 2:07:49. She shared the podium with Brazil’s Dyenyfer Arnold, who broke the tape in a time of 2:07:07. Mexico’s Ana Maria Valentina Torres Gomez was second at 2:08:03.
Canada’s 23-year-old Sophia Howell was mixing it up at the front of the pack with the world’s elite throughout the triple-sport test. Howell crossed the line seventh overall – second best U23 athlete – with a time of 2:08:45.
“It was probably one of the toughest courses I have ever done, but I’m happy to put together a pretty solid race overall. Those hills were tough on the run. I tried to make up time on the downhills, but those legs were pretty cracked from making it up the hills,” said Howell. “Having the two of us Canadians racing upfront with those strong Brazilian girls, and being able to rally with those two was pretty great.”
After a night’s sleep, Legault and Howell had little time to rest. They were back on the start line with Canadian teammates, Blake Harris and Aiden Longcroft-Harris for the team relay which consists of each athlete completing a 300 metre swim, 6 kilometre bike and 1.5-kilometre course. The four Canucks were rock solid from start-to-finish, combining for a second place time of 1:29:37.
“The team did awesome. We got the right order for everyone to manage their stengths,” added Legault, who took the opening leg. “We all worked together really hard to get the silver medal today
Aiden Longcroft-Harris closed the gap on the second leg, taking the lead into second transition and onto the run.
“It was extremely hard. It took absolutely everything today. The swim is choppy so I was swallowing a tonne of water and then I think I might have went into cardiac arrest on the hill, but I managed to close the gap and have really clean transitions to help minimize the time,” said Longcroft-Harris, who got the Canadians into third place.
Sophia Howell took advantage of the choppy water to move to the front, and stormed into transition with two athletes. The North American duo did all of the work on the bike and hung on through the run.
“We dropped one athlete on the bike after pulling her around, and then on the run, I just tried to keep the gap as small as possible,” added Howell.
Blake Harris went into the swim a bit behind, and was forced to a penalty after missing the bucket with his goggles. He took the penalty and was still able to hang on for second place.
“I knew I could catch Sullivan in the swim and I did. I held the lead for about 70 per cent of the bike. He put some time into me pretty quick on the run, but I’m going home with a silver medal.”
The United States team finished on top of the podium with a combined time of 1:29:22.
Team Ecuador was third at 1:31:30.
Complete Americas Triathlon Championship Results
