Simon Whitfield of Kingston, Ont. won the men's Canadian National Triathlon Championship on Sunday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John UlanJohn Ulan/The Canadian Press
Simon Whitfield won his 10th national men's title, while Sarah-Anne Brault upset world No. 3 Paula Findlay for the women's title Sunday at the Canadian Triathlon Championships.
Brault, a 21-year-old from Winnipeg, finished the 1.5-kilometre swim, 41.6-km bike and 10-km run in two hours four minutes 41 seconds.
Brault showed her game plan early and stuck to Findlay's heels throughout the swim in Lake Okanagan. She came out of the water in sixth spot directly behind Findlay and never let her out of sight.
"I just kept telling myself to run my pace," Brault said. "Paula just came back. I wasn't supposed to win so that gave me an extra boost. I had some equipment problems with my goggles and gears on my bike, but it was a perfect day."
With a lead group of about eight athletes working together in the lead pack throughout the bike course, it was the 22-year-old Findlay who shot out of the second transition in hopes successfully defending her title.
Brault, who is a 10-kilometre running specialist with West Virginia University, was able to reel Findlay in on the run.
"Paula took off after the transition. She's the best in the world. I never once thought I could catch her or win," Brault said. "I had no idea how the run would go, but I just kept to my pace."
Edmonton's Findlay finished in 2:05:35. Lindsey Jerdonek, of the United States was the third fastest finisher at 2:06:03, but Calgary's Kyla Coates, who crossed the line fifth, took the bronze medal as the third fastest Canadian at 2:09:10.
In men's competition, the 37-year-old Whitfield, a native of Kingston, Ont., won gold with a time of 1:54:12.
He beat training partner Kyle Jones of Oakville, Ont. Jones had beat Whitfield in the last two races.
"It is nice to get one on Jones because he has been strong this year," said Whitfield, a two-time Olympic medallist. "We had some fun banter throughout the week. We have become like brothers. Every workout we are side-by-side so we know how much it will hurt to win."
After Whitfield and Jones came out of the water in the lead pack, the two Canadians managed the lead group of 10 athletes throughout the bike before running ahead of the field.
Whitfield eventually outpaced Jones and took a 30 second lead into his final lap.
"As soon as I saw Kyle on the run I knew he was suffering. We trained pretty hard to this race so one of us was going to be tired — that was inevitable and that very much could have been me," Whitfield said.
Jones hung on for the silver medal in 1:54:36.
American Gregory Billington was third fastest on the day at 1:54:46, but Kingston's Alexander Hinton took bronze as the third fastest Canadian. Hinton finished seventh overall in 1:56:34.