—Kamylle Frenette successfully defends gold, Jessica Tuomela snags silver—
MAGOG, Que.—Canada’s Paratriathlon squad defended their home turf at a World Cup in Magog, Que., where they they toasted a double-medal Saturday.
Kamylle Frenette (Dieppe, N.B.) stormed to the gold medal in the women’s standing category, while Jessica Tuomella (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) and her Montreal-based guide, Marianne Hogan, teamed up to finish second in the women’s visually impaired race.
One week removed from her 23rd birthday, Frenette put down her best performance of the season, clocking a time of 1:11:04.1 on the 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre bike and five-kilometre run course.
Now in her second full season with the national development squad, Frenette has racked up five international medals (two gold, three silver) in World Paratriathlon Series, World Cup and CAMTRI races.
“It was a great day and always so exciting to race in Canada,” said Frenette, whose only other victory also came in Magog one year ago and won a silver earlier this year at a CAMTRI event in Sarasota. “It was my first race swimming without a wetsuit so that was a different experience for me, but a good practice for Tokyo.
“The bike and run went very well for me. I’m leaving Magog happy with a win, and some points going forward towads the Tokyo 2020 qualifications.”
Hungary’s Petra Levay was the next best finisher at 1:17:56.1.
Competing in just their third race together, Canada’s newly-formed tandem of Jessica Tuomela and Marianne Hogan are showing immediate chemistry in the women’s visual impaired category. Two weeks after winning the bronze at the World Paratriathlon Series in Montreal, the Canadian duo climbed back onto the silver-medal step of the World Cup podium up the road in Magog.
Hogan guided the 35-year-old Tuomela to a second-place time of 1:13:01.2.
“I’m ecstatic with our silver medal,” said Tuomela, who is a three-time Paralympian in swimming. “Magog is a challenging course so we really had to dig. For a visually impaired team, it is not all just about going fast – it’s about going fast together and that changes the sport completely. We were able to do that today so that is really cool.”
The Canucks finished behind Melissa Reid, of Great Britain, who locked up the gold with a time of 1:08:27.7. Annouck Curzillat, of France, claimed the bronze medal with a time of 1:14:30.9.
In the men’s visually impaired classification, Canada’s Jon Dunkerley (Ottawa) and his guide, James Cook (Summerland, B.C.), joined forces to post a fifth-place time of 1:04:34.0 for one of their strongest results of the season against a deep international field.
“We are really happy with the effort today,” said Dunkerley. “We are continuously making progress in all three disciplines of the triathlon, and are hoping to contine to grow while having the opportunity to race the world’s best.”
Thibaut Rigaudeau, of France, was one of two athletes to complete the sprint-distance course in under one hour. Rigaudeau stopped the clock at 59:19.3 to take top spot on the men’s podium. Federico Sicura, also of Italy, was sub-one hour, placing second at 59:55.0. Antoine Perel, of France, claimed third place at 1:02:03.2.
Two other Canadians also suited up on Saturday. Quebec’s Lyne-Marie Bilodeau was fourth in the women’s PTS2 division with a time of 1:39:30.6. Lining up in her second race ever, Winnipeg’s Leanne Taylor was eighth in the PTWC classification, stopping the clock at 1:29:17.7.
Complete World Cup Paratriathlon Results:
https://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.xhtml?raceid=101274
