When Sam Lazar crossed the finish line in the Prince George Citizen Triathlon, he had no idea he had just won the Olympic distance race. He was given that welcome piece of news a few minutes later, while he was cooling down.
The 36-year-old teacher from Vanderhoof was stunned.
"I'm extremely surprised -- I don't usually win these things," said Lazar, who finished a 1.5-kilometre swim, 20km bike ride and 10km run in a time of two hours 24 minutes 19 seconds. "I've been training a lot harder this year and I guess hard work pays off."
The race was held Sunday at West Lake Provincial Park. It was the "sixth or seventh" triathlon of Lazar's career, his first in Prince George, and marked his first-ever victory. And he won by a substantial margin. The next-closest competitors were P.G. athletes Rod Lecher (2:25:46) and Michael Buchanan (2:26:53).
In the women's category, Sonya Croker was Sunday's Olympic distance champion. Croker, who recently moved from London, Ont., to work as a geologist at Endako Mine near Fraser Lake, finished her race in a time of 2:36:37. She crossed the line ahead of Darcy Russell (2:43:57) and Lorelei St. Rose (2:44:58), both from Prince George.
Croker, like Lazar, was a first-time entrant and winner in the Citizen triathlon. Earlier this season, the 25-year-old also won triathlon and half-marathon events in Smithers so she's having a great year so far.
On Sunday, churning water and headwinds gave her some momentary struggles on the swim and bike segments respectively but she persevered.
"I panicked a little bit at the start of the swim -- the waves were pretty choppy and I sucked back a lot of water," Croker said. "The swim was alright after I got past the first buoy and then the bike, the wind was pretty horrendous going out. It was uphill and against the wind. Coming back was great because you had a tail wind the whole way."
On Monday, see The Citizen and pgcitizen.ca for more.
