Island triathletes heat up in Abu Dhabi

At least it felt a little bit like home.

Four athletes from the Triathlon Canada national training centre in Victoria went from training on rain-slicked Island roads to a hot-weather rainstorm in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., on Friday.

Tyler Mislawchuk of Oak Bluff, Man., was 11th in 58:07 and Matthew Sharpe of Victoria 20th in 58:31 in the men’s race of the season-opening World Triathlon Series event. Joanna Brown of Carp, Ont., crashed out of the women’s race while 18-year-old Desirae Ridenour of Cowichan Bay was 23rd in her senior world debut.

“I’m going to use this momentum going forward towards the Commonwealth Games [at Gold Coast, Australia, in April],” said Mislawchuk, who was 15th in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.

The strong winds and driving rain knocked Sharpe, a native of Campbell River who graduated from Claremont Secondary in Saanich, hard to the ground in the jostling after the open-water swim portion of the race before the Islander dusted himself off and got on his bike. Not that cycling was a treat, either, on this day.

“The race itself was total carnage, for myself and the other competitors,” said Sharpe, in a statement.

“It rained before our race and so the course was slick and the turns became treacherous. It was one of those days where guys were crashing left, right, and centre. It seemed like every corner someone was going down. Just getting off the bike in one piece was an achievement today.”

Henri Schoeman of South Africa, who Mislawchuk and Sharpe will face in the Commonwealth Games next month, managed to stay upright enough to win the race in 57:03. Mario Mola of Spain was second in 57:09 and Vincent Luis of France third in 57:25.

Brown, who was world top-five last year, was in the lead women’s group before tumbling to the pavement and out of the race in the cycling portion.

Former junior star Ridenour, meanwhile, continues her emergence and finished her first World Series race in 1:03:02.

“I came into this race with zero expectations,” said the graduate of Cowichan High.

“Luckily, I didn’t crash [but] there were a few close calls. Overall, I’m happy with this result.”

Dutch competitor Rachel Klamer won in 1:00:43 with Jessica Learmonth of Great Britain second in 1:00:57 and Aussie Natalie Van Coevorden third in 1:01:00.

The next race in the eightevent World Triathlon Series is April 28 in Bermuda.