I (Grayhame) took part in the Sprint event on Friday 6th June and to quote from the BT website:

"Great Britain's Age Group sprint triathletes overcame horrendous conditions as well as international opposition at today's 2008 Sprint Triathlon Age Group World Championships in Vancouver, Canada.

Vancouver suffered its coldest June day since 1954 yesterday as air temperatures peaked at 11.1°C alongside relentless rain. The first sprint wave this morning at 06:30am suffered water temperatures of just 10.9°C and frigid wet weather."

I was off at 07:20hrs to do a badly measured 750 metre very cold swim, that was actually about 1100 metre swim, anyway I left the water in second place in my age group.  We then cycled 3 loops of a very wet, overcast course through the pine trees in Stanley Park where the downhill was just a little hairy.  The run course was twisty a little but mainly flat and without incident.  I managed 10th out of 22 entrants in the 55 - 59 years, age group K, which I have to say was beyond my expectations.

Anne was entered in the Standard Distance on Saturday 7th June when the sea first thing was calm and the first few waves set out on the sea swim.  However, as the morning progressed it became quite choppy and formidable with a growing number of swimmers in difficulty.  It turned out that the cold weather and the choppy seas took their toll and stretched the boat cover beyond the organisers expectations.  The 38 age group 'L' Ladies, including Anne, had been allowed to enter the sea to warm up (!!) but after and initial delay of 10 minutes and then another delay of 1 hour, (husbands were dispatched for Starbucks coffee) they were told that the sea swim was no longer safe and that the event was switching to a Duathlon.  Competitors were then given an hour to get down to the hastily arranged Duathlon start line.  So the event became a 3Km run / 40 Km bike / 10 Km run. Given that Anne has concentrated on her swimming over the winter the switch to a Duathlon was not well received. Anyway Anne cycled 4 laps of an enlarged Stanley Park course packed with Triathletes of all ages weaving and racing, before completing 2 1/2 laps of the run course to come 21st out of the 38 in her age group.  A position she felt she could have improved on had it been a Triathlon with the swim.

Anyway a good time was had by all before we went off for a weeks tour of the Vancouver area.

To quote the BT website again

"The 2008 Age Group World Championships suffered unfortunate weather as rolling waves and swells in the Pacific Ocean reduced early athlete waves to just a 1100m swim. However worsening conditions throughout the morning left the ITU officials no option but to cancel the swim portion of the race, instead enforcing a Duathlon (3km run - 40km cycle - 10km run) format for the rest of the competition."

There were a number of 'issues' about the quality of the hosts organisation, for the World Championships, but that is a story for another day. 

Anne & Grayhame Fish