Triathlon News & Notes: One-Of-A-Kind Races and Coyotes Force Run Leg Cancellation

The Paralympics and Collins Cup races may be filling your feeds and dominating headlines this week, but here’s what else has happened in and around the triathlon world over the past seven days.

COVID cancels St. Anthony’s Triathlon—again

With the resurgence of COVID-19 throughout the Tampa Bay area and the increase in hospitalizations, St. Anthony’s Triathlon organizers have canceled the race for the second time in two years. An annual tradition since 1984, the race was called off in 2020, and then the April 2021 date was rescheduled for Oct. 3. But on Friday, St. Anthony’s President Scott Smith announced that they’re now pressing pause until 2022, revealing a new race date of April 29. “The surge of COVID-positive patients into our hospital has increased tremendously during the past month, taxing our team members and our health care partners—emergency medical services, firefighters and police officers,” Smith said. “We rely on those partners throughout the triathlon weekend for their services. It would not be responsible for us to further burden those resources at this busy time.”

Coyotes cause Vancouver Triathlon to course correct 

Last week, a triathlete in Ontario was attacked by a fish while training. Now, coyotes are the latest wildlife impacting the sport in Canada. After some 40 human attacks on humans by coyotes in Stanley Park since December, the Vancouver park board has canceled the run portion of the Vancouver Triathlon, slated for Sept. 5. “A number of the hotspots where the attacks have occurred, we did cross a number of those paths,” race director Trevor Soll said of the planned 10K course. Race organizers are now seeking out an alternative course for the run leg that will keep competitors from crossing into the coyotes’ turf.

Siri Lindley shares diary of her cancer journey

Siri Lindley, a world champion-turned-coach, shared a look inside her journey with acute myeloid leukemia with Cancer Health. Diagnosed in November 2019 after routine bloodwork prior to hip replacement surgery, Lindley underwent a bone marrow transplant the following February and was deemed cancer-free in May 2020. In the piece, Lindley says she is now running for an hour a few days each week, on top of coaching, managing her horse ranch, and doing public speaking. “I feel strong and healthy, even though I still need strengthening and healing,” she wrote. “When you’re in the middle of recovery, you just think it’s never going to end.”

RELATED: Siri Lindley Wins Her Greatest Battle—Recovery

USAT partners with Events.com for seamless race registration

Ever go to register for a triathlon, only to have to dig through old emails to find your USAT membership number? You may be in luck, thanks to a partnership between USAT and Events.com. Targeted to streamline the registration system for USAT-sanctioned events, the Events.com integration will allow athletes to register for events quickly, with instant USAT membership validation and simplified membership purchase. “This integration with USAT streamlines and automates the process of managing and verifying athletes’ USAT membership. We are proud to work with USAT to provide a faster and more efficient experience,” said Events.com CEO and Co-founder Mitch Thrower, a 22X Ironman triathlete and former president of Triathlete Magazine. “Triathletes are some of the most motivated people on the planet and they love saving time.”

Mammoth-on offers a different type of triathlon 

Forget swim, bike and run….what about a cave, hike, and bike triathlon? That’s the format followed in the “Mammoth-on,” dubbed as the only “triathlon” of its kind in the country. Canceled by COVID in 2020, the event is set for Sept. 19 in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park. The race follows a two-mile route inside Mammoth Cave, followed by a two-mile hike on a nearby trail, and then an 18-mile bike ride. “Our main focus is to get people engaged with the environment,” said Rick DuBose, Executive Director of Friends of Mammoth Cave. “It’s technically a triathlon, but it can be as grueling as each participant wants it to be.”

“Fantasically hard” Starman Triathlon starts at midnight

Another one to put under the unique race umbrella: The Starman Night Triathlon, a half-iron-distance event that begins at midnight and follows a challenging course throughout Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. This year’s race, which went off in the wee hours of Aug. 13, was one for the books as the overall winner, Iain Veitch of Peebles, Scotland, won in record time (5:36:09). “Diving into the pitch-black water for the swim was nerve-wracking, but the organizers set-up of flashing buoys, safety canoes, and a million glow sticks kept it from being scary,” Veitch said, noting an extra sense of camaraderie among participants from being out there at 2 a.m. “Biking in the dark was fun. The extra sense of speed felt at night-time made even the slow sections feel fast and the fast sections feel like flying. The run was fantastically hard on tired legs but coming down off the second mountain at sunrise was special and unlike any other racing experience I’ve had.”

Podcast notes

• The Oxygen Addict podcast brings on age-grouper Andrew Horsfall-Turner, who recently won the Outlaw iron-distance event in the UK with an impressive time of 8 hours, 26 minutes. In the chat, Andy reveals that he’s aiming to break the swim course record out in Kona and is eyeing an overall age-group win.
• World Triathlon shines the spotlight on Jetze Plat, a paratriathlete from the Netherlands who has gone undefeated in international triathlon events since 2016. Competing in the PTWC  (wheelchair) class, Plat is the only triathlete also competing in road cycling and cycling time trial in Tokyo, and is aiming for a unique golden triple.
• The Triathlete Hour showcases Mohamed Lahma, a bronze medalist in paratri at the 2016 Rio Games who will compete in paracycling in Tokyo, representing Morocco. Lahma, who was born without a femur on his right leg and competes using a prosthetic, also describes completing the six-day Marathon des Sables on crutches.
• Australian paratriathlete (and 2019 World Champion) Lauren Parker, who competed in traditional triathlon before an accident left her paralyzed with a spinal cord injury, is featured on Healthy-ish.
• TriDot celebrates its 100th episode with a rapid-fire Q&A with its resident coaches. Topics include conquering hilly courses, training in cold weather, and goal setting.
• The Inside Tri Show explores expanding triathlon into India with coach and athlete Aarathi Swaminathan, who is working on encouraging more Indian women to take up the sport.
• Recent Ironman Champ Sam Long catches up with Greg Bennett, who calls his guest “one of the sport’s great personalities.”
• Get to know more about Jocelyn McCauley of the U.S. and New Zealand’s Kyle Smith, two pro triathletes who are competing in the Collins Cup, on IMTalk.