Winners dig deep at Penticton Challenge triathlon

PENTICTON – Over 1,100 athletes from across North America and as far away as Europe and Asia braved the cool, wet weather to take park in the Challenge Penticton triathlon on the weekend.

Sunday was race day with Victoria's Brent McMahon winning the men's event and Jennifer Spieldenner from Illinois grabbing the women's title.

“I wanted to go out and I wanted to win this event,” McMahon says in a media release.

He took the lead during the bike portion of the race.

“It takes a lot of hard work to do that. There were great Canadians, and great international athletes here," he says. "They didn’t make it easy on me.”

McMahon finished the race with a time of 3:50:38.

Speildenner led during the swim, changing order with the other top five women competitors through the bike and run portions of the race. When Speildenner took the lead in the run, she never gave it up, finishing with a time of 4:25:09.

“It felt amazing to win this race,” Speildenner says. "I really had to dig deep with the challenging course, elements, and competition… it’s a tough course that pushes you."

All the race results are on the Challenge Penticton website.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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Steve Arstad

I have been looking for news in the South Okanagan - SImilkameen for 20 years, having turned a part time lifelong interest into a full time profession. After five years publishing a local newsletter, several years working as a correspondent / stringer for several local newspapers and seven years as editor of a Similkameen weekly newspaper, I joined iNFOnews.ca in 2014. My goal in the news industry has always been to deliver accurate and interesting articles about local people and places. My interest in the profession is life long - from my earliest memories of grade school, I have enjoyed writing.
As an airborne geophysical surveyor I travelled extensively around the globe, conducting helicopter borne mineral surveys.
I also spent several years at an Okanagan Falls based lumber mill, producing glued-wood laminated products.
As a member of the Kaleden community, I have been involved in the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department for 22 years, and also serve as a trustee on the Kaleden Irrigation District board.
I am currently married to my wife Judy, of 26 years. We are empty-nesters who enjoy living in Kaleden with our Welsh Terrier, Angus, and cat, Tibbs.
Our two daughters, Meagan and Hayley, reside in Richmond and Victoria, respectively.

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