Azumi runs wild at Ultra520K race
Jordan Bryden won the race but Konoka Azumi stole the show on the final day at the 17th Ultra520K Canada triathlon Monday at Summerland’s Memorial Park.
Bryden, a 31-year-old from Calgary, led wire-to-wire in the three-day, 520 kilometre event, finishing in an overall time of 24 hours, 12 minutes and 36 seconds.
Bryden also set a new swim course record on Saturday, finishing the 10 km segment on Skaha Lake in 2:23:59. It broke Craig Percival’s record of 2:24:28 set in 2013.
Fourteen athletes – nine men and five women – took part in the event, which included the lake swim and a 144.8 km first-stage bike on Saturday, a 273.5 km second-stage bike on Sunday, and an 84.4 km run on Monday.
Azumi, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher from Japan, literally ran wild in the double-marathon run from Princeton to Summerland.
The former high school sprint star arrived at the finish line at Memorial Park in an incredible time of 6:59:33, shattering the previous women’s run course record of 7:32:06 set by Australian Kate Bevilaqua in 2015. Bevilaqua set five records in winning the event outright in a women’s overall course record time of 24:16:27.
American Van Tassel managed to edge out Azumi for the women’s overall top finish. Van Tassel, a 41-year-old, did the run in 8:21:25 to finish at 26:16:54 overall, while Azumi settled for second at 26:22:44.
Azumi was third among women and ninth overall after the swim and bike segments before blowing the field away on the run.
In the history of the event, only two men had finished the run with a sub-seven-hour clocking.
Penticton’s Kevin Cutjar holds the run course record of 6:37:41 set in 2010.
Others to finish the race as of press deadlines on Monday included:
Matt Schroderus, Canada (age 41): 8:16:07 run, 25:27:28 overall.
Ramon Lopez, Spain (age 42): 8:19:56 run (27:12:53 overall).
Van Sanchez, Mexico (age 22): 8:57:53 run (27:03:16 overall).
Mark Krys, Canada (age 33): 9:42:31 run (30:28:59 overall).
Because some of the athletes were still out on the run course, most of the overall placings hadn’t been determined.
See Wednesday’s Herald for the complete list of finishers.