Comox Valley Triathlon Club (CVTC) celebrated Father’s Day with an Open Water Swim Clinic at Comox Lake.
The clinic was coached by Kris Bell, the Comox Valley Aquatic Club (CVAC) coach.
Bell has been a professional swim coach since the early 1990s and was involved in the coaching of two sets of siblings, Olympians Brittany and Heather MacLean and the Abdel-Khalik brothers, who swam in the World Championships in Barcelona. He joined CVAC in August 2013.
The clinic was open to both male and female members of CVTC and CVAC and was the first of four such clinics to be held this summer.
The clinic was geared toward both experienced triathletes and those new to the sport and began with methods for gaining confidence in open water swimming. It then moved on to sighting in open water and how to deal with the issue of swimming in a competitive pack.
The involvement of the CVAC coach with the CVTC is another example of the growing links between sport clubs in Comox Valley. CV Cycle, Road Runners, Triathlon and Aquatic clubs have many shared members and are increasingly offering opportunities for members of the other clubs to take part in their activities.
CVTC president and organizer of the clinics, Kim Griffiths, said "You’ve got to love the Valley and its small town attitude of 'we are better together.' This training session was a great success and we are all looking forward to the other three clinics."
CVTC members have already been involved in triathlon races on the Island this year.
The Subaru Half Ironman, which was held in Victoria on June 14, involved a 1.9K swim, 86K bike and 20K run. Four CVTC triathletes took part with finishing times of 5 hours 38 minutes for Shannon Jones, 5:45 for Dan Stanton, 6:03 for Anna Diedrickson and 6:43 for Kris Hopping.
Hopping also took part in the My 24 Shawnigan Lake Olympic Triathlon which consisted of a 1.5K swim, 44K bike and 10K run. She finished third in her age group in a time of 3:32.
Many members of the club also took part in the local Shoreline Orthodontic Tri-K, also held on May 24. The club had some outstanding results with three age group winners (Ian Heselgrave, Derek Tripp and Bonny Ervin), two second place age group (Derek Vinge and John Newman) and two third place age group (Chanace Vanderheide and Marnie Van der Vliet) finishes.
The dates of the other three Open Water Swim Clinics are July 12, Aug. 16 and Aug. 30.
Anyone wanting further information about the Clinics and CVTC or interested in joining, contact cvtriclub@gmail.com
– Comox Valley Triathlon Club