Matheson wins, breaks his own course record
Penticton’s Dave Matheson pulled away on the run to win the Ultra520K Canada triathlon, breaking his own overall course record by more than 10 minutes in the process.
Matheson, 47, finished the race in 21 hours, 37 minutes and 27 seconds, breaking the mark of 21:47:47 he set the only other time he competed in the event in 2013.
A blazing 6:55:17 time on the 84.4 km double-marathon run from Princeton to Summerland’s Memorial Park on Monday gave Matheson a comfortable edge on runner-up Arnaud Selukov of France, who finished over an hour back at 22:56:10.
Matheson only led Selukov by 16 minutes after the swim and bike segments. But he beat his impressive run time of 7:04:13 in 2013, which ultimately enabled him to break his own overall course record.
Penticton’s Kevin Cutjar still owns the run course record of 6:37:41 set in 2010.
Selukov, the 50-year-old renowned Iron-distance triathlete, was also second the run in 7:57:46.
Penticton’s Tony Buckingham, competing in his first Ultra520K event, turned in a terrific thirdplace performance.
Buckingham finished at 24:35:39 after arriving fifth on the run segment at 8:58:22.
The 38-year-old had built up enough of an edge on the swim and bike portions to hold on to third place overall.
A total of 32 athletes (20 men and 12 women) from nine different countries took part in the threeday, 520 km event held in the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys.
Day 1 on Saturday featured a 10 km swim in Skaha Lake followed by a 149.8 km bike ride through the South Okanagan, over the Richter Pass, and ending back in Kenyon Park in OK Falls.
Day 2 on Sunday consisted of a 274.2 km Stage 2 bike that started in Penticton and finished at the Princeton Arena.
Day 3 on Monday was the 84.4 km run from Princeton to Summerland along the Old PrincetonSummerland Road.
It was the 18th edition of the race, which will be once again held on the B.C. Day long weekend in 2019.
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