A Ladysmith triathlete’s winning ways are taking her all the way to the world championships in Chicago.
Sixteen-year-old Courtney Chanin, who swims with the Ladysmith-Chemainus Orcas Swim Club, has qualified for the ITU World Triathlon Chicago short distance triathlon world championships next year. To do so, she finished as the top female in the Shawnigan Lake Triathlon High School Sprint, completing the 500m swim, 22km bike and 5km run in 1:13:00.
“When I went into the race, I knew that the person who came first would qualify [for the worlds], but I didn’t know I was going to, so I was really excited,” she said. “It will be a good experience to go and do some travelling.”
Chanin doesn’t expect qualifying for the World Championships will change her plans for the next year too much.
“Usually, I stop training for a couple of months and then get back into it, but because I’m going, I’ll probably train all year long,” she said.
Chanin says she usually competes in four or five triathlons a year , though she will probably compete in more this year.
The Ladysmith Secondary School student has been competing in triathlons for nine years.
“My dad signed us up when we were little for fun, and we kind of just kept doing them,” she said, adding she likes the running. “I feel like it’s very different from other sports because you’re doing three. You can’t just be good at one of them to win. It’s lots of fun.”
Besides competing in triathlons and swimming with the Orcas, Chanin has been running cross country for the past three years, and she has gone to the provincials three times.
Chanin recently competed in the Victoria Youth Triathlon and finished first there as well. She also competed in the first event in a four-race National Junior Triathlon Series in Pike Lake, Sask.
“It was a lot of fun,” she said, noting that is the farthest she has travelled for triathlon so far.
