The Prince George Northern Triathlon is an all-ages event that starts bright and early Sunday morning at the Aquatic Centre.
Thirty-one older athletes in the 16-and older category will dive into the pool to get their race started at 7:30 a.m. and 111 Kids of Steel triathletes get started on their races shortly after.
For 33 years, up until 2016, the Prince George Triathlon (for adults) was an annual event at West Lake Provincial Park, until it fizzled the following year due to a lack of interest in organizing the race.
This marks the second consecutive year and third overall the adult and kids triathlons have been contested on the same day in the same venues following its revival in 2019 and a three-year pandemic-related hiatus.
The Kids of Steel race is a qualifier for the B.C. Summer Games in Maple Ridge, July 19-21. The top two finishers in each of the 12-13 and 14-15 age categories (male and female) will qualify. It is the qualifying race for Zone 7 (North West) and Zone 8 (Cariboo-North East).
Maisie Hoehn, who won the Kids of Steel girls 12-13-year-old class last year, will be a strong contender for one of those 14-15-year-old Summer Games spots.
Other racers to watch in the two Games age classes are Christian Hickey, David Hillhouse and Megan Vansickle. Vansickle, a speedskater with the Prince George Blizzard Club, is competing in her first triathlon as the only female in the 15-16-year-old class.
The kids’ riding distances vary according to age starting at 500 metres for the three-to-five-year-olds. The youngest ones run 250 m and swim 25 m.
The bike route for the kids is contained in a tight perimeter around 18th Avenue and the Aquatic Centre, keeping in line with Triathlon B.C. and Canada’s long term athlete development model.
“The focus of our course has to do with bike-handling skills,” said race director Clayton Wilkinson.
“The kids do a zig-zag through the parking lot and they go out on 18th Avenue to the traffic circle and back again. There’s a lot of cornering the kids will get to do, so not a lot of high speed but a technical course to build their cycling skills.”
The adult triathlon is a sprint event that covers 700m in the pool, followed by a 20-kilometre bike ride and five km run. The ride goes as far as the Foothills Boulevard-Otway Road overpass and riders will do that loop twice.
Josiah Wilkinson, Clayton’s 17-year-old son, is the heavy favourite to win the adult male race. The graduating Prince George Secondary School track star in a provincial-calibre 1,500 m and 3,000 m contender and is on the B.C. provincial triathlon team.
Coming off an impressive win at the Cherry Blossom Triathlon on Kelowna on May 5 and an 11th-overall finish at the North Shore Triathlon in North Vancouver on Monday, he’s expected to complete the sprint course in about an hour.
He could face some stiff competition from Matt Thomson, a former world sprint triathlon competitor, and Jonathan Taylor.
Thirty-one volunteer positions have yet to be filled and are needed to run the race. To help with such duties as traffic control, timing, transition zone monitoring or course marshalling call Clayton Wilkinson at 250-981-1702.
