{"id":338,"date":"2016-04-15T15:03:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iceh.net\/?p=338"},"modified":"2016-04-15T15:03:23","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:03:23","slug":"victory-heartwarming-for-trio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/?p=338","title":{"rendered":"Victory Heartwarming for Trio"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Download<\/a><\/div>

The Whitehorse Star, Monday, August 14, 1995 Page 17 <\/strong>Sports <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Trio complete triathlon in under two hours<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Victory heartwarming for trio<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Dave White, Star Reporter<\/p>\n

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There were no cheering crowds waiting for Bill Matiation when he became the first person to cross the finish line at the 1995 Coast Mountain Triathlon.<\/p>\n

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In fact, the only people to witness Matiation\u2019s finish were a pair of timekeepers. The rest of the volunteers, participants and spectators were still collecting themselves, and probably didn\u2019t expect any person or team to finish the race in under two hours.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s just what Matiation, Don Swanstrom and Fred O\u2019Brien did. The self-named Heartwarmers<\/em> finished the 750-metre swim, 25-km mountain bike and 10-km run in 1:54.59.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re a team of three, we\u2019re not the real triathletes,\u201d said Swanstrom, attempting to downplay his team\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really wimping out doing only one section, but what the hell,\u201d said Matiathion.<\/p>\n

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O\u2019Brien may have taken exception to some of his teammates\u2019 comments, since he was the one who flung himself into the frigid waters of Kookatsoon Lake for the race\u2019s first stage.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was definitely cold,\u201d said O\u2019Brien, who tackled the swim without a wet suit.\u201c \u201cI was kind of caught between wanting it to be colder so half of them wouldn\u2019t make it, but not so cold that I wouldn\u2019t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve an awful lot of triathlons all over, and that was the coldest I\u2019ve ever had for a swim,\u201d said Wade Scoffin, who teamed up with Anna Pugh and Josee Leclerc for a third-place finish among mixed teams. \u201cFor that distance, it was a tough swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dave McInnes, coach of the Whitehorse Glacier Bears swim team, easily outdistanced the rest of the pack to finish the lake leg first, but O\u2019Brien was close enough to give cyclist Swanstrom a chance to make a move.<\/p>\n

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Swanstrom took advantage of the opportunity, finishing his leg eight minutes ahead of his nearest competition, open mens\u2019 competitor Dallas Eng.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s a good kilometre (lead), so it\u2019s hard to make that up on a short run like that,\u201d said Matiation. \u201cIt\u2019s only 10-k, and they cut out a couple of hills this year so once you had a lead that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eng couldn\u2019t reel in Matiation over the final leg, but still held off Dirk Millar to become the first soloist across the finish line with a final time of 2:97.09.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe run was a killer, and the swim, I\u2019m never too good at the swim,\u201d said Eng. \u201cThe swim was the best I\u2019ve ever had. I usually have to stop and stand on the bottom for a while, but I swam 90 per cent of it this year\u2026 (on the run), the distance isn\u2019t too bad for me because I think my endurance is good right now, it\u2019s just doing 10 k after a bike and a swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI actually had (Eng) in sight until we got into the real technical section of the bike, then I never saw him again,\u201d said Millar, who placed second in open men with a final time of 2:11.36. \u201cI was hopeful until that point. Once we got on the haul road I never saw him again. I was more worried about John Berryman passing me than catching him.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting worried for a while, because someone was right behind me and I thought it was Dirk,\u201d said Eng. \u201cThen he passed me and I saw it was some guy from a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d really have a chance at beating him, unless he bonked I knew there was just no way,\u201d said Millar. \u201cHe\u2019s too young, and age is catching up with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Age wasn\u2019t an issue for a lot of the younger entrants in this year\u2019s race, but the marriage of Mike Kelly did play a role. Kelly and Charlie Mason-Wood were married the day before the race, and the late night celebration of the nuptials had more than one competitor in Sunday\u2019s event thinking twice of mixed good times with final times.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Andrea Roger wasn\u2019t worried about any of those issues. Roger chose Sunday as the day to enter her first-ever triathalon, and her third place finish in the open womens\u2019 category with a time of 2:33.27 indicated she hadn\u2019t waited too long.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I would definitely say is a must is a wet suit for the swim,\u201d she said. \u201cI was the second-last person out of the water, and all I had was shorts and a vest \u2026 I was guaranteed a shocking experience. A girl who had done it before told me to expect a gasp when you go in, then you had to catch your breath,\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cBrrrr that\u2019s how I would describe it, and use lots of \u2018r\u2019s,\u201d said Lisa Fairman, who swam the lake leg for the \u201cGirls That Go\u201d team with Jeanne Macleod and Jody Leeti, who placed first in their category with a final clocking of 2:26.14. \u201cIt seemed a lot longer than 750 metres.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI think she was brave just to jump in,\u201d said teammate Macleod.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rob Hucken displayed his own brand of Kiwi bravery. The visiting New Zealander entered the race even though he had broken the radial bone in his elbow in January and still had little movement in the joint.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe bike was hell,\u201d said Hucken. \u201cIt was my first time on a mountain bike and probably the last \u2026 I was about to pull out a couple of times, but I stayed in. I was lucky I had the ski patrol behind me the whole way.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hucken was the last person across the finish line Sunday, but still came away with a good feeling about the race.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a great race, well-organized. I never thought I\u2019d be that pleased to see the (S.S) Klondike. I\u2019m just happy they moved it down here instead of leaving it at the other end of downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here are the top three winners for the Open Mens\u2019 Teams 1995:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Heartwarmers (Fred O\u2019Brien, Don Swanstrom, Bill Matiation), 1:54.59<\/li>\n
  2. JAG (Jonathan Kitz, Allan Frostad, Gerard Frostad), 2:08.25<\/li>\n
  3. Sure Win (Dave McInnes, Joe Mason, Chester Kelly), 2:09.19<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Note:<\/p>\n

    The 1994 results of the Coast Mountain Triathlon appears on page 33 of The Yukon News, Wednesday, August 3, 1994 on which there is a picture captioned: \u201cJeff Toews [Hilda\u2019s son] climbs a steep hill overlooking Schwatka Lake\u201d and one of Fred O\u2019Brien [unnamed], captioned: \u201cswimmer comes out of the cold waters of Kookatsoon Lake.\u201d<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Here are the top three winners for the Open Mens\u2019 Teams of 1994:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Fred O\u2019Brien, Don Swanstrom, Bengt Petterson, 2:15.15<\/li>\n
    2. Phil Cunningham, Owen Parry, Tom Ullyett, 2:19.31<\/li>\n
    3. Dave Dawning, Ken Sylvestre, Rick Curial, 2:28.00<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Whitehorse Star, Monday, August 14, 1995 Page 17 Sports   Trio complete triathlon in under two hours   Victory heartwarming for trio by Dave White, Star Reporter   There were no cheering crowds waiting for Bill Matiation when he became the first person to cross the finish line at the 1995 Coast Mountain Triathlon. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}