Canada’s Simon Whitfield captured the silver medal in the men’s triathlon Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics.
Whitfield, who lives in Victoria, mounted a furious rally to briefly take the lead late in the closing sprint before being overtaken over the final stretch by Germany’s Jan Frodeno.

"I kind of fought my way on there, and I thought there’s no time like the present," Whitfield said. "I tried to make it a battle of pure willpower. I gave it everything I had."

Whitfield finished five seconds back of the surprise winner, who completed the course in one hour, 48 minutes, 53 seconds.

New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty took the bronze, 12 seconds back of Frodeno.

Pre-race favourite Javier Gomez of Spain faded late to finish fourth.

Edmonton’s Paul Tichelaar finished 28th, while Colin Jenkins of Hamilton, Ont., was 50th.

Whitfield, who won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics before stumbling to 11th in 2004 in Athens, looked to be falling out of medal contention late in Tuesday’s race, which comprised a 1.5-kilometre swim followed by a 40-km cycling stage and a 10-km run.

But after Gomez, Frodeno and Docherty dropped him from the four-man lead pack heading into the bell lap of the final leg, Whitfield found another gear and moved into the lead on the closing straightaway.

The canny 33-year-old tried to block the taller Frodeno’s path as the runners sprinted for the finish, but the big German proved too strong, overtaking Whitfield with perhaps 100 metres left and cruising through the tape.

"I tried hard, I tried really hard. For a moment there, I thought I had it," Whitfield said.

Maybe the biggest surprise was Gomez’s failure to produce a strong final 5 km, his trademark.

Unable to shake his pursuers heading into the final lap, the reigning world champion and two-time reigning World Cup season champion didn’t have enough left in the tank to try a sprint for his first Olympic medal amid hot and humid conditions in Beijing.

Whitfield was able to execute a solid race plan from the get-go.

Jenkins, whose job was to act as an escort of sorts for Whitfield over the first two stages, emerged from the water in the Ming Tombs Reservoir more or less even with Whifield, with the Canadians keeping Gomez in sight.

After the athletes picked up their bikes for the cycling stage, Jenkins briefly took a turn at the front as Whitfield lurked patiently amid the large lead pack of about 50 riders through the halfway point.

Cycling specialist Tichelaar, who had made it clear before the race that he wouldn’t act as Whitfield’s rabbit, also kept pace with the main group.

Whitfield said his teammates’ help during the race was invaluable.

"Our communication was spectacular," he said.

The first major breakaway happened on the penultimate cycling lap as three riders – Mexico’s Francisco Serrano, Belgium’s Axel Zeebroek and Luxembourg’s Dirk Bockel – moved boldly to open up a 45-second advantage on their pursuers.

The pace proved too much for Serrano, who fell back toward the chase pack near the end of the bell lap. By that time, Zeebroek and Bockel had opened up a one-minute lead, and they high-fived to celebrate their accomplishment before ditching their bikes.

But the two pretenders soon began fading, and the chase pack – including the three Canadians, Frodeno and Gomez – gained ground over the first lap of the run.

Britain’s Alistair Brownlee was the first to catch up toward the end of the second lap, leading a cluster of nine runners that included Gomez and Whitfield.

Gomez and teammate Ivan Rana quickly made a move, zipping ahead as the top pack thinned out to six runners, with Whitfield bringing up the rear.

Brownlee dropped back to make it five at the front, and Rana traded spots with the hard-charging Frodeno, who joined the frontrunners as the leaders headed into the bell lap.

That’s when it looked to become a three-man race, as Gomez, Frodeno and Docherty left Whitfield in their wake.

But the Canadian refused to quit, digging deep to catch up and then surpass the leaders on the final straight before Frodeno’s finishing kick forced him to settle for silver.

"To be able to fight my way back to the podium, that was hard, that was so hard – this was a harder race than Sydney was," Whitfield said.

With files from the Canadian Press

Paul Luke, The Province

Olympic athletes groaning under the weight of overstuffed suitcases may envy Victoria’s Lauren Groves when she arrives in Beijing this week for the triathlon.

Groves will be lighter on her feet than rival triathletes who have crammed dozens of bottles of vitamins and minerals in their bags to see them through their gruelling event.

Groves, 26, avoided supplement angst by finding pretty much everything she wants in a new product called 7systems.

Aspire Sports Supplements, the company behind 7systems, has promoted the endurance sports supplement as a way to blunt the impact of Beijing smog by goosing athletes’ immune systems.

But 7systems’ long-term mainstream appeal may lie less in any smog-easing properties and more in its stress-busting simplicity.

"When we started, we targeted the endurance sports market but it’s really for anybody whose life involves excess amounts of stress," says Aspire co-founder Jasper Blake, also of Victoria.

"It’s a potent multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, multi-nutrient product designed to cover all your bases."

Blake and Aspire co-founders Stefan Timms and Martin Rydlo know something about athletes’ nutrition anxiety.

Timms and Rydlo are former professional triathletes, and remain active in the sport.

At 34, Blake is still pro. The 2006 Ironman Canada champion is training for the 2008 Ironman Canada in Penticton on Aug. 24 and for the Ironman world championship in Hawaii in October.

The three friends saw a gap in the supplements market for a cost-effective and comprehensive product to help endurance athletes handle the stress of training and racing.

After 18 months of research, tests and consultations with health professionals, the three arrived at a blend of more than 60 ingredients.

The result can be ordered over the web at www.7systems.ca. So far, only one store — Frontrunners in Victoria — stocks the product.

"Our longer-term goal is really to have a strong presence in the retail sector," Blake says.

At $87 for a month’s supply, a potential customer might wonder whether the supplement is really cost effective. Blake insists it is when you compare the hundreds of dollars all the individual ingredients would cost.

And Aspire will send you two months free supply of 7systems if you buy the ingredients for less.

The seven systems the supplement targets are muscular, immune, respiratory, digestive, nervous, skeletal and cardiovascular.

Aspire elected to deliver the product in the form of a packet of nine pills taken daily.

The company hired Gianni Parise, an assistant professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, to review the formula. Parise, who works in Mac’s departments of kinesiology and medical physics and applied radiation science, checked scientific data to ensure the product would do what it’s supposed to.

At first glance, 7systems appears to be a supercharged vitamin-mineral-nutrient supplement, Parise says. It goes a step beyond run-of-the-mill supplements by including key ingredients such as glutamine, Coenzyme Q10 and glucosamine, he says.

The product, which is suitable for the general public, functions like a safety net for people whose stressful professional lives or training schedules may leave them with less than well-balanced diets, Parise says.

"You won’t take a supplement like this and become an Olympian overnight. The training is 90 per cent of it," Parise says. "It will help athletes, particularly in track and field, recover and prevent damage."

There have been conflicting scientific findings regarding the effectiveness of some of 7systems’ ingredients, Parise says. But research to date indicates they are all safe, he says.

Dr. Lloyd Oppel is less certain. Dr. Oppel, who chairs the B.C. Medical Association’s council on health promotion, says the "buyer beware" rule applies to natural health products given the absence of rigorous screening by Health Canada.

"The agency is, unfortunately, operating under rules of engagement that do not effectively protect consumers in ensuring that health products are effective or that they’re safe," Dr. Oppel says.

Certain herbal remedies long used in traditional medicine have shown serious side effects when closely studied, Dr. Oppel says.

Caveats aside, 7systems has won praise from many athletes.

Groves says she has more energy, recovers faster and is able to train harder since she began taking the supplement last November.

"I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference in racing," she says.

"It’s more about getting to the starting line healthy and fit, with a strong immune system."

On a trip to a recent event in South Korea, the supplement gave Groves nutritional peace of mind after she found herself staying clear of "unrecognizable veggies and mystery meats."

Douglas Laboratories, the supplement’s manufacturer, guarantees that 7systems has been exposed to no banned substances during production.

Douglas does not guarantee that 7system pills will taste wonderfully yummy if an over-eager user accidentally chews one.

"It’s not candy," Blake says. "We thought we would have to spend another five years trying to make it taste good."

© The Vancouver Province 2008

He sprinted to gold in the first Olympic men’s triathlon.

Refocused and rejuvenated, he heads to Beijing ready to swim, bike and run for the podium

Simon Whitfield
Born: May 16, 1975, Kingston, Ont.
Home town: Kingston, Ont.
Residence: Victoria
Height: Five foot nine
Weight: 154 pounds
On team since: 1994

Career Highlights:
- 2000 Olympic champion, becoming the first male triathlete to win a gold medal in triathlon at the Olympic Games.
- 2002 Commonwealth Games champion and 1999 Pan Am Games silver medallist.
- Finished in 11th place at the 2004 Summer Games.

In 2000, Simon Whitfield sprinted to the finish line in the shadow of the Sydney Opera House. It seems he has been trying to run out of it ever since.

The moment that has come to define him is both boon and curse. Ever since winning the inaugural gold medal in the men’s triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Simon Whitfield has had to live up to being Simon Whitfield.

It hasn’t always been easy.

There have been highs and lows, from gold at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games to 11th place at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. For anyone else, 11th at the Olympics would be a credible result. Not, however, when your name is Simon Whitfield.

When Whitfield thinks back to 2000, it almost seems as if he’s talking about someone else.

"It seems like a lifetime ago. The whole experience was surreal. But every six months or so, something will spark a memory of Sydney."

Whitfield tells of reading an article recently about former U.S. Olympic champion swimmer Gary Hall Jr.: "For a moment, my mind was actually drifting and thinking about how great it was that this guy had an Olympic gold medal until I caught myself … ‘Wait a minute, I have one of those laying around the house, too.’"

That was the "other" Simon Whitfield who won that gold medal.

It was just after Athens four years ago — when he could no longer call himself the defending Olympic champion — that it really hit home that the world of Olympic sport waits for no one.

"My ego wanted to win at Athens and I remember it as a huge disappointment."

Now, one year into fatherhood and his career rejuvenated at age 33, Whitfield seems to have found himself again. He is fit, sharp and on-beam, and heads into the 2008 Beijing Games as a medal threat. Whitfield finished second in the world rankings in 2007 and his pre-Beijing results this season have been strong.

Whitfield has refocused and goes into Beijing as a medal contender.

Yet not without some controversy.

One of Canada’s most appealing and popular athletes, Whitfield has taken some hits on the road to Beijing — the only time he has done so in his career — because some believe he has used his influence to get Colin Jenkins of Hamilton on the three-member Canadian men’s triathlon team to act solely as a Whitfield pace rabbit.

Jenkins is very fast in the swim and cycling portions, but weak in the run, the final portion of the triathlon in which Whitfield is extremely swift.

The idea is to have Jenkins pull Whitfield in the swimming and the cycling portions to keep him in touch with the lead group. When the run starts, Jenkins will fall away like a booster rocket and Whitfield will zoom off from there.

The goal, Whitfield notes, is to land a Canadian on the podium in Beijing and this gives Canada the best shot.

"Triathlon Canada has invested a lot of money in all of us and the future is now when it comes to bringing home a medal and we have to go with what gives us the best chance."

The rake-thin Whitfield said he feels remarkably resilient and is good to go until London 2012.

"I absolutely love doing this … it’s my obsession … I started at 16, so I have now been doing this longer than I haven’t been doing it. I couldn’t imagine my life without swimming, cycling and running. But I don’t enjoy the Olympic year as much as I do the others in between. An Olympic year brings out the craziness in everybody, including myself."

Whitfield has been able to carve out a pretty good career financially in triathlon. For that, he makes no apologies.

"Sport is my job."

And he’s good at it. Even if it means having to out-run shadows from Sydney.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

Colin Jenkins is on the Olympic men’s triathlon team because he’s willing to sacrifice his dreams of a medal to get teammate Simon Whitfield on the podium in Beijing.

Whitfield, the Olympic gold medallist in 2000, Edmonton’s Paul Tichelaar and Jenkins, from Hamilton, Ont., were named to the men’s team Monday by Triathlon Canada.

Jenkins was appointed to the team ahead of Victoria’s Brent McMahon, who is ranked higher than Jenkins internationally, because Triathlon Canada says Whitfield’s chances of winning a medal improve with a teammate whose sole purpose is to draft for Whitfield on the 40-kilometre bike leg of the race.

"We’re putting a team together that’s about medal contention and at the end of the day, that pressure falls on me," Whitfield said Monday from Vancouver in a conference call.

"We set this team up and I have to go perform."

When cyclists draft for each other, they take turns riding at the front of the pack to cut down on wind resistance for those behind them.

Triathlon is an individual sport, but the athletes draft for each other on the bike to reel in leaders or increase their lead.

In the Tour de France, a rider whose sole purpose is to draft for a teammate is called a "domestique." That is what Jenkins, who is a strong swimmer and cyclist, but an average runner, will be Aug. 19.

"I have no pipe dream that I’ll be the one on top of the podium in Beijing," Jenkins said. "I’m going to Beijing to do anything I can to help Simon win and get on top of the podium. That’s my role."

The men’s Olympic team was chosen by Triathlon Canada’s high performance committee which consists of chairman Dr. Tom Patrick, Olympic coach Joel Filliol, Barrie Shepley, Gary Pallett and athlete representative Suzanne Weckend.

President Stephen Holmes and executive director Alan Trivett are also on the committee, but don’t vote. Trivett said the team selection was unanimous.

Sunday’s world championship in Vancouver was the last chance for Canadians to secure a spot on the Olympic team and a top-eight result was required.

Whitfield was sixth, but he’d already earned his berth by finishing fourth at the 2007 world championships. Tichelaar was ninth and Jenkins was 55th. McMahon finished 17th.

So the remaining two nominations to the Olympic team fell to the discretion of Triathlon Canada.

Team selection has been a contentious issue since the sport’s governing body in Canada changed its criteria late last year from a top-16 result to a top-eight result at the world championship in Vancouver.

McMahon, Tichelaar and Carolyn Murray launched an unsuccessful appeal of the change.

The man on the outside looking in is McMahon. The 27-year-old won a silver medal at the Pan Am Games last year and finished the season ranked 31st. Jenkins was ranked 47th in 2007.

McMahon wasn’t interested in another appeal because of the hours of research and telephone calls it takes.

"It’s a very draining process," he said Monday from Vancouver. "You can only do that so many times."

He wasn’t shocked by Monday’s announcement because he knew Triathlon Canada’s intentions if he didn’t secure a top-eight spot Sunday.

"They’ve given themselves the power to do basically whatever they want," he said.

While McMahon says he would be willing to help Whitfield during the Olympic race when the opportunity presented itself, he wasn’t going to do so at his own expense.

He’s not sure how much of a difference Jenkins can make.

"If Simon is having a bad day, he’s having a bad day and he’s not going to run well enough to win, no matter what Colin does," McMahon said. "They’re not going to get him away (on the run) with a one-minute lead if he’s having a bad day.

"I want a Canadian to get a medal, but I just don’t know if this is going to increase the chances or not."

Triathlon Canada’s desire to choose an athlete whose sole purpose was to help Whitfield created tension between Whitfield and Tichelaar in the days leading into the world championship.

Tichelaar was quoted as saying "the big dog gets his bone." Their relationship seemed to have thawed as Whitfield said he’d "had a beer" with Tichelaar after Sunday’s race.

"We both realize that our sport is too small for us not to be getting along," Tichelaar said. "Whatever disagreements we have, we’ll sort it out."

Vancouver’s Lauren Groves has already qualified for the Canadian women’s team. Her two teammates will be named at a later date. The Olympic women’s triathlon is Aug. 18.

TORONTO – Simon Whitfield of Kingston, Ont., Paul Tichelaar of Edmonton and Colin Jenkins of Hamilton, Ont., have been named to the Canadian men’s triathlon team for the Olympic Games.

Triathlon Canada made the announcement this morning following the 2008 world championship in Vancouver on Sunday.

Whitfield, an Olympic gold medallist in 2000, will compete in his third Olympics, while Tichelaar and Jenkins will make their Games debut in Beijing.

Whitfield, 33, qualified by finishing in the top eight at both a World Cup and a world championship. Tichelaar and Jenkins were nominated to the team by Triathlon Canada’s high performance committee.

The women’s triathlon team will be named within the next two weeks.

The Olympic triathlons will be held Aug. 18 and 19.

Here’s his first entry:

A blog for globeandmail.com by a guy who runs around in his swimsuit for a living . . .

When Jenny Higgins started doing triathlons, she discovered something peculiar. She had been on her high school cross country and swim teams and her college swim team. But in 2003 she started running, swimming and cycling, and tried to excel in all three at once.

“I noticed that in the pool, my legs felt very heavy,” she said. “I was dragging my legs more than I used to and it hurt my swimming.”

Other times, she would swim fluidly but feel lifeless when she ran or cycled. After five years as a multisport athlete, Ms. Higgins, now a 32-year-old postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University, said the push-me-pull-you feeling has not gone away. It made Ms. Higgins wonder something that may be on the minds of the nation’s more than 100,000 triathletes, too: Is it even possible to peak in more than one sport at once?

Click here to continue reading this article .

TRIATHLON — The longest-running World Cup in International Triathlon Union history will be staged Sunday in Ishigaki, Japan.

A tough course in hot humid conditions will offer athletes a similar setting to the Olympic venue in Beijing. Olympic gold medallist Simon Whitfield of Victoria kicks off his 2008 season at the event.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008 

Red Bull. That stuff really gives you wings, man. It’s not the nugget of nutritional advice you might have expected from an Ironman World Champion. But Chris McCormack insists it’s what finally pushed him over the finish line to win the Hawaii event – the most gruelling athletic test in the world of sport. McCormack was on the island this week along with Xterra off-road triathlon ace Melanie McQuaid to give a series of clinics and talks to local athletes and youngsters.

Aussie McCormack finally achieved his dream of winning the 2.4mile swim, 112 mile bike and marathon at Kona last year, after six years of trying, completing the course in eight hours, 15 minutes and 34 seconds. If it’s possible to imagine anything more extreme than that. Then Xterra triathlon is it. It’s not as far. A breezy Olympic distance (1.5k/40k/10k) triathlon. The catch is it’s all off-road – ocean swimming, mountain biking and trail running.

The Hawaii event – held on Maui – features more than 3,000 feet of climbing on the bike and run up the lava strewn slopes of the dormant Haleakala Volcano.

McQuaid, a former pro mountain biker from British Columbia, has won it three times.

The pair sat down with James Whittaker this week to share some of the wisdom that helped make them champions.

BDA Sun: Tell us a little bit about your training schedules

Melanie McQuaid: It depends on how much travel I need to do. If I’m at home I do 20-30 hours a week, biking, running, time in the weight room, yoga, stretching.

About 65 per cent of the work I do is on the bike. It’s not all in the mountains, I do about 60 per cent of that on the road. You push bigger gears on a road bike.

Mountain biking is really hard on your body so it takes more time to recover.

Chris McCormack: As you get older you get smarter. I used to be a quantative person. So many athletes think there is this magic number of miles you have got to do. In my biggest career week I swam 35k, rode 1,000k and ran 110k. I was very much caught up in this belief that you have to do more, more, more. Over the years I’ve finessed what works for me and now I do more like 15-20k in the pool, 600k on the bike and 80k running each week.

BDA Sun: Any training tips for amateur athletes?

MM: You want to focus on maximizing your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses,

If you focus on that you’ll maintain your strengths and chip away at your weaknesses. I don’t know anyone who ever achieves their full potential. There are three sports to improve in.

In an eight hour race, even in a three hour race, there’s so many things can happen. Even if you win there’s always something you could have done better

CM: That’s the addiction. It’s the battle that keeps you in it. Every time you race, you ask yourself – ‘what could I have done better?”

When you stop asking yourself that question it’s time to hang up your boots.

Every failure you can take and use it and say I need to do this or that better next year.

Every athlete is striving for that perfect race and I don’t think it ever happens. I don’t even know how to define it.

BDA Sun: Chris, have you ever tried the off-road triathlons?

CM: I did it one year in Hawaii and I lost 30 minutes on the bike from my normal Olympic distance time.

MM: I think I overtook you

CM: The descent on the bike is called the plunge. It’s a vertical drop, plus the people in-front of you kicked up so much dust you could hardly see where you were going and the rocks are razor sharp. If you drop the bike it’s going to hurt.

You see these people coming back and saying ‘that was unreal’ and they’re covered in cuts and bruises. They’re ripped to shreds.

I’d love to switch but I’m not talented enough on a mountain bike.

BDA Sun: What’s the appeal, Melanie, can you explain that?

MM: It’s different and there is risk involved. That’s what’s interesting about Xterra (off road triathlons). Every race is not a set distance. In Hawaii you’re basically racing on lava. It’s rocky and you have to have good bike handling skills. Other times you can be racing in mud.

There is some risk to it. That’s what makes the sport exciting. There’s no reward without risk.

Everybody’s got good bike handling skills, so it becomes very tactical. How much do you let it go on the descent?

BDA Sun: How did you get into it?

MM: I raced the World Cup as a mountain biker so I already had those skills. I was good at racing mountain bikes and thought I’d be a good triathlete too – it’s a sport that rewards a good cyclist.

I also like the fact that you get to see a lot of nature – going to different places where you can really get a good feel for the environment.

BDA Sun: You are also here to talk about nutrition. What’s the key to eating right for an athlete?

MM: I think it’s basically 80-20. If 80 per cent of everything you’re eating is the right thing. Breakfast is good, lunch is good, dinner is good. It allows some room in your diet for the things you enjoy. You can’t just swing from junk food one week to a boring diet the next, there has to be balance.

More vegetables and less sugar is one of my main themes.

BDA Sun: What about you Chris. What gets you through an Ironman?

CM: Red Bull. That stuff gives you wings, man. I had worked with all these scientists and nutritionists and they had designed this plan for the race. They told me no caffeine.

I ran the worst race of my life. I almost gave up on the run, till one of the other guys told me to grab a coke.

After that it was caffeine at every stop. Now for the last seven miles all I drink is Red Bull.

BDA Sun: You don’t often hear people recommending Red Bull. What does the caffeine do?

CM: In a race that long it’s neurological. You start to drift with your mind but you need to stay focused. You want to disassociate a little bit because you want the time to go quickly. But it’s when you go over to the dark side of the force that it becomes a problem.

You need to stay alert mentally and focus on the little things, caffeine helps with that.

BDA Sun: How do you stay focused Melanie?

MM: The terrain is so rocky you can’t take your mind off it. You have to pay attention the whole time or you’ll fall over.

It’s maximum gas the whole way through.

The best race is when you’re completely focused, nothing else comes into your mind.

With XTerra you break it up into a swim, bike and run and you do each at full pace – as fast as you can. I race at about 195bpm,

You swim, 1500m at your top speed. On the bike, the whole race in Hawaii is to the top of the hill – then the descent into the finish line.

You can’t take a drink on the descent.

Then you have to go and run the fastest 12k you can. You have to think I haven’t swam, I haven’t biked, it’s all about the run.

BDA Sun: There’s obviously a lot of mind games involved. In what situations do you go over to the ‘dark side’?

CM: If you’re a front-runner, like I used to be, that’s a demon that can affect your race.

You don’t know what’s behind you. You are the hunted.

The anguish of being in front is you don’t know what’s going on in the race. If I’m hunting someone, I’m getting the splits, I’m constantly being fed information, I know what I have to do.

If you’re in front you only have to let the doubts creep in for a second and it can upset your whole race.

Norman Stadler (one of McCormack’s biggest Ironman rivals) is a front runner and one of the biggest weapons I have against him is to try and make him doubt himself. I play the mind games, I feed it through the press, on my website. People think it’s arrogance but this is real for me. If you create a doubt that can give you a tiny advantage on the course then it’s worth it.

MM: When you’re racing that hard. Everybody’s got the years of experience – everybody’s got good technical skills, everybody’s put in the training.

If you have a mental advantage it can make a difference. Even if it’s one per cent it can make a difference.

Anyone who’s been on a treadmill and tried to run just one kilometre knows it’s never your body that’s stopping you. It’s in your mind.

Any sport – Ironman, Xterra, tennis… It comes down to how strong your mind is.

BDA Sun: Any final words of wisdom?

MM: I would say it’s important to set goals and to constantly re-assess them as that will keep you motivated and focused.

CM: Be Patient. Sport makes you deal with failures a lot more than success but there’s really no such thing as failure just learning experiences that you can reflect on to help you improve the next time.