Hundreds of athletes converged on Couchiching Beach Park Sunday morning for the 33rd annual Northern Triathlon.
For the second straight year, Thornhill’s Frank Sorbara crossed the finish line first as he successfully defended his title in the elite men’s division.
“It feels good,” said Sorbara, moments after crossing the finish line and sharing a high five with his father.
“I’m so happy to have my dad here … I am so thankful for his support.”
The win was quite a feat for Sorbara, 26, as an injury prohibited him from running for more than a dozen weeks.
“Tuesday was my first run outside in about three-and-a-half months,” he said.
However, he made up for that with preparation in the water. Last week alone, he swam 57 kilometres.
He noted it was a bit windy Sunday on portions of the 33-kilometre bike component of the event, but, otherwise, conditions were ideal.
Sorbara was second out of Lake Couchiching after the 750-metre swim, just a minute or so behind three-time champion Jessey Elf.
However, early on in the bike portion of the three-sport event, Sorbara was able to overtake Elf and then was never challenged after that. He had an impressive seven-kilometre run to cap his day and finished four minutes ahead of Elf overall, clocking a time of 1:27:35.
Sorbara said he likes the Orillia course and was appreciative of the volunteers who ensured the athletes could stay on track.
Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Melissa Hardy finished first, clocking a time of 1:48:38. She finished less than a minute ahead of Kaitlyn L’Abbe.
More than 330 athletes competed in various age groups in Sunday’s sprint triathlon. Others also competed in a relay race and a duathlon, while almost 200 athletes participated in the Try-a-Tri, an introductory race.
Overall, more than 600 athletes participated in the popular event, one of several on the Subaru Triathlon Series.
While Sunday was the big day, many younger athletes — as young as four — participated in Saturday’s Kids of Steel event.
On both days, dozens of volunteers were instrumental in ensuring everything went smoothly.
You can check out full race results by using the calendar on sportstats.ca and navigating to the Northern Triathlon section.
