Peach Classic Triathlon back after hiatus

Founded on fun and fairness, the Peach Classic Triathlon has been a staple of the provincial sports scene for nearly four decades.

Sunday was the 38th swimming, biking and running of the annual event after a two-year COVID hiatus with a total of 270 triathletes competing in both the standard and sprint events.

“First of all, this is the 38th running in 40 years, this has been the longest, continuous running triathlon in the province,” said longtime race director Steve Brown during a break in the action. “It’s had a tremendous reputation over the years and it’s the Okanagan... so it doesn’t get much better than that.”

One person who particularly enjoyed the day was Cory Krist of Kelowna who won the standard distance event in just under two hours.

He finished about four minutes faster than runner up Martin Caron of Penticton.

“It was a perfect day, just tons of fun and it was just great to be back racing again,” said Krist after crossing the finish line.

His favourite part of the race?

“The finish,” he said with a laugh.

“Really though, I had a great swim, great bike and the run always hurts, but overall the whole thing went really well.”

The top female finisher in the standard division was Andrea Damiani of North Vancouver who turned in a time of just over two hours, 17 minutes.

Men’s sprint winner was Max Elliott of Vancouver and Penticton’s Rebecca Psutka was the division’s first female.

The swim course in the World Championship qualifying event is 1.5 kilometre standard and 750 metres sprint.

The bike course is 40km standard and 20 km sprint and the run route is 10 km standard and 5 km sprint.

One person who had way more fun than most people at the event was Andrea Gardiner, one of the cycling volunteers for the day.

No stranger to the sport, Gardiner, who was outfitted in bright pink headgear, has competed in 16 Ironman races.

“I’m here because for me it’s the start of summer and to see (announcer) Steve King” she said, adding with a smile: “I love this race, if I don’t have to do this race, and I always like to come out and lend a hand and cheer people on and make dreams come true.”

Having competed in 16 Ironman races herself, she is really looking forward to No. 17 next month in Penticton although she is not expecting to do well, as usual.