MELMERBY BEACH – A local athlete dominated the competition in the water, on wheels and on his feet.
Ryan MacDonald of New Glasgow won the Olympic Distance Triathlon Event at the 28th annual Pictou County YMCA Triathlon yesterday.
The event was held at Melmerby Beach and hosted over 140 participants across several events, including a kid’s day on Saturday.
MacDonald finished his 1500-meter swim in 22 minutes and 15 seconds, more than a full 2 minutes ahead of the competition. He finished his 40-kilometer bike ride in an hour and four minutes and his 10-kilometer run in just 37 minutes and 32 seconds. He flat out won the event, recording top times in each of the three sections of 50.5-kilometer gauntlet.
MacDonald was just one of about 40 local participants in the event this year.
Emily Morton, of New Glasgow finished second overall for the women and 17th overall for the race. She was first however in her age division. She won the Fred Lays Award for youngest participant in the full triathlon while Carol Curley was awarded the Verna van Bommel volunteer award.
One of the event directors, Patsy Langille, said that the event was not sanctioned this year, in an attempt to cut costs.
She said it made it less competitive and more open to anyone who would like to participate.
Terry Curley, another organizer said that the event could become intimidating when it is sanctioned.
“Triathlon Nova Scotia is there with lots of rules,” he said.
The organizers were very pleased with the event and they hope to have even more participation next year.
“Given the fact that its not sanctioned, we’re very pleased with the numbers,” Curley said.
The triathletes had great conditions for the event with only a bit of wind.
Besides the Olympic event, there was the sprint triathlon – 750 m swim, 20k bike ride and 5k run, the super-sprint 300m, 8k and 2k as well as the non competitive try-a-tri.
