New Team
With the start of a new school year comes the start of a new triathlon season, something we have all been looking forward to! After an incredibly competitive tryout period we are excited for a new in-person season, including in-person training, races and socials.
We would like to introduce you to a few of our athletes and why they have newly joined, or re-joined the team!
Emily Wood: New Athlete
Emily Wood is one of our new athletes this year and we are super excited to welcome her to the team! She is in her first year of Engineering and she joined the team to continue to be a competitive athlete while starting university. She is looking forward to being able to train with awesome teammates.
Casey Hill: New Athlete
Next we would like to welcome Casey to the team! Casey is in his 3rd year of Integrated Engineering and joined the team to become a part of a great community. He finds training and competing with others much more motivating than doing it alone. He is excited for races and is especially looking forward to competing in the Ironman 70.3 in Victoria this coming May. He is also super excited for some long team rides. Keep reading below to see what fun rides we have planned and will be doing in the warmer weather!
Doria Unrau: Returning Athlete
Doria is in her final year of honours chemistry at UBC. She joined the triathlon team last year to find more like-minded people to enjoy the highs and lows of training and competition with. Through triathlon she has met some of her closest friends who are extremely supportive, push her to work harder and make practice more enjoyable. She is super excited to compete more this year, including an Ironman 70.3 in May!
Gleb Valiakhmetov: New Athlete
Last but not least, Gleb! As a student in his first year of Kinesiology, Gleb Valiakhmetov is super excited to be a part of the triathlon team this year, not only to become a stronger athlete, but also to be able to spend time with amazing people on and off of the training course. Teammates and the team environment are something Gleb finds very important, and he says that he is “absolutely happy with it”. We are glad to hear it Gleb! Welcome!
First Race: Great Trek
We had a great turn out at this year’s Great Trek, with 14 of our athletes competing! Four of our athletes, Doria, Emily, Ari and Michael tackled the Hat Trick – that is, they completed the 21km race, then the 10km race and finally the 5km race, running a total of 36km!
A few highlights include Doria Unrau placing 2nd in the 5km AFTER completing the 21km and 10km race, Siemon Joubert and Alvin Qui placing 1st and 2nd in the 5km, with Siemon laying down an incredible time of 17:21 (a PB that he has since beaten), and Adam Guthrie placing 3rd in the 10km race!
Phantom Run: 12, 19.5 and 25km trail race
On November 13th, ten of our athletes competed in yet another race, the Phantom Run, a trail race in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. Thankfully our athletes finished the race before the storm hit, but it was not without some muddy shoes and scraped knees. The 12km course included 500m of elevation and the 25km course included 800m of elevation. We are proud to mention some of the amazing results we achieved this weekend! Callum Mackenzie came 1st for men 20-29 years old in the 12km race and Siemon Joubert placed 1st for men 20-29 in the 19.5km race. In the 25km race, Cameron McInnes and Gleb Valiakhmetov placed 1st and 3rd, respectively, in the 19-and-under category, Emily Wood came first (19-and-under category), and Doria Unrau placed 2nd in the women’s 20-29 category. Congratulations to our athletes, and keep up the good work!
Summer Highlights
Last but not least we need to mention some of the incredible training and racing our athletes did this summer, keeping them not only in shape for this season, but allowing for exploration of the great outdoors and some magnificent team bonding. Two key events included the Longest Week of the Year and the Vancouver Triathlon.
Longest Week of the Year: $5,840 raised and 2,702km down
Each August, our athletes pledge to ride long-distances on the saddle to raise money for a non-profit of choice. This year, we raised $5,840 for the PHS Community Services Society and rode over 2,702 kilometers – a few of our athletes rode 321km in one day!
Although those final hours were grueling on the bike, our team wholeheartedly agrees that there is nothing more motivating than raising funds for such an awesome organization! The PHS Community Services Society is a non-profit that provides housing, healthcare, and harm reduction for some of the most vulnerable people in Vancouver and Victoria.
A few highlights on the PHS Community Services Society:
- PHS provides 1,5000 units of supportive housing across BC, including modular housing and highly supportive low-barrier homes and shelters
- PHS runs an Indigenous health services with programing that supports up to 80 to 100 people a week through weekly talking circles, monthly sweat lodge ceremonies, drum making, and more
- PHS has a Community Health Clinic on Columbia Street that provides access to low-barrier primary care services, mental health, and addiction treatment services
We highly recommend you check out their Website to learn more about the amazing work this non-profit is doing in our community. While our fundraising page is closed, you can donate directly here!
Thank you to all of our athletes, friends, and family who participated in the fundraiser! Below are the impressive rides completed throughout the week:
Sierra Arn* – 251km single-day ride
Thomas Arn – 251km single-day ride
Doria Unrau* – 320km single-day ride
Ava Peacock* – 152km single-day ride
Amy Topshee* – 251km single-day ride
Angus Topshee – 251km single-day ride
Shaun Donnelly* – 148km single-day ride
Abby Edison* – 321 single-day ride
Michael Hoefert* – 321km single-day ride
April St. Pierre* – 321km single-day ride
Jackie Donnelly – 101km 7-day total
Siemon Joubert* – 137km single-day ride (5x Mount Seymour)
Amanda Lazar* – 128km single-day ride (Vancouver Triple Crown 👑)
Vancouver Triathlon
Over the summer many of our current athletes, as well as some now graduated athletes, competed in the Vancouver Triathlon. It consisted of an open water swim in the somewhat cold ocean, loops around Stanley Park, or as we like to call them, SLOOPS, and a run along the seawall. Our athletes’ dedication to training was evident by the amazing results we saw. Ethan White, Siemon Joubert, Abby Edison and Gabby Bourgault-Kennaley all came first in their age group in the sprint triathlon. Not to mention, for females 20-24 in the sprint, the first 5 places (1-5) were all filled by current and previous UBC Triathletes – Abby Edison (1), April St Pierre (2), Rocio Hollman (3), Sierra Arn (4), Ashley Lloyd (5). Serena Hollman placed 3rd in the sprint for her age group, and Doria Unrau and Amanda Lazar swept up 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the olympic distance. Congrats to an absolutely amazing performance from all of our athletes and the team as a whole!
