The Parkland Triathlon Club hosted a Kids of Steel (KOS) Triathlon which ran under cool, overcast conditions Sunday morning.
A duathlon for adults, scheduled for later in the day, was cancelled because of a lack of entries.
Race director for the KOS triathlon, J'neene Ethier says the weather combined with the Saskatoon marathon may have been responsible for the low adult interest in the duathlon. "I think most people are at the Saskatoon marathon," she states.
Twenty youngsters ages eight to 15 took part in the triathlon event, Ethier reports.
The triathlon involves three disciplines. It starts with a swim in the Gallagher Centre water park pool. Eight- and nine-year-olds swam 100 meters, 100 11-year-olds swam 200 metres, 12 13-year-olds swam 300 metres while the oldest group, 15 15-year-olds swam 500 metres to start the race.
Following the swim portion of the race, the young triathletes changed in to street apparel and mounted bicycles for the next leg of the race. The two younger age groups, eight-nine and 10-11 cycled for five kilometers. The two older age groups completed 10 kilometres on bicycles.
The Kids of Steel complete the race with a one kilometre run for the youngest group. The distance increases one kilometer per group until the oldest age group which runs four kilometers, Ethier reports.
This year the club had 17 youngsters complete the 10 week program offered by the Parkland Tri Club, Etheir says. The training program which started in March ended with the race this weekend. Youngsters can choose to continue racing in any other series throughout the summer, Ethier points out.
Adults generally run from January until about the end of June. "They're encouraged to do races as well," Ethier notes.
It's a sport for everyone, Ethier suggests. "We have kids six years old racing all the way up to, well, you could be 100 and still do this race," she insists.
Ehtier thanks all the volunteers who worked the race including, the Gallagher Centre, McDonalds, the Parkland Triathlon Club and all the sponsors of the KOS triahlon.
