Around 60 young athletes from across province will descend on St. Marys this week to take part in the triathlon competition of the 2024 Ontario Summer Games
Around 60 young athletes from across province will descend on St. Marys this week to take part in the triathlon competition of the 2024 Ontario Summer Games.
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The event will be one of 18 sports that will see more than 3,500 young athletes from across the province competing at venues in London and the surrounding area. After being approached to host the triathlon by organizers in London, town officials jumped at the opportunity to be part of the Ontario Summer Games, said St. Marys’ director of community services, Stephanie Ische.
“(It) is pretty fun and exciting for us. . . . Our quarry attracts many unique things, such as triathlons, and it’s great from a sports tourism perspective because it does attract individuals into our community that might not have otherwise visited,” Ische said.
“I’ve been receiving calls from coaches and parents, especially more so in the last few weeks, that have come into our community to practice. . . . And St Marys is a small town. We’re not like Stratford, where we have more amenities. We are a smaller unique area, so it’s kind of neat to be able to see. And people are like, ‘Oh my gosh, we want to come back again, or we would like to host more triathlons here,’ which is exactly what you want to see come out of something like this.”
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The event is scheduled from 8 am to 12 pm on Friday and Saturday. The athletes will swim at the quarry, cycle through the town and then run on the grounds of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The athletes, aged 15 to 16, will participate in two disciplines – a mixed team relay and a two-heat cumulative super sprint individual race. On Friday, the mixed team will see two male and two female athletes per team completing the entire course – a 300-meter swim, a five-kilometer cycling route and a 1.5-kilometer run. On Saturday, the individual race will see the athletes complete the same course in two heats, with the times of each heat being added together to determine placing.
Ische encouraged St. Marys and Perth County residents to come and show support for the young athletes.
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“Some of these athletes, this is just the start of their career because they are youth athletes. So it’s nice to come out and support and cheer them on because some of these athletes are going much further than this,” she said.
As a result of the event, there will be road closures that St. Marys residents should be aware of. This includes: Queen Street East from Charles Street South to Thomas Street, and Water Street South from Queen Street East to the entrance of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, which will also be closed from 7 am to 12 pm Parking will be unavailable in the closed areas, but all side streets and municipal lots will be open. Downtown businesses will still be open during the event, with patios and sidewalks open as well.
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An alternate detour route will be open to allow vehicles to travel through town and, while no athletes are on the course, vehicles will be able to cross the closed roads, under police supervision, at Church Street, Wellington Street and Park Street. Residents on Queen Street East and Water Street South will have limited access to their driveways during the competition. While vehicles will be able to exit in between heats, no re-entry will be permitted until the roads have reopened.
Despite the closures, the impact is expected to be minimal, Ische said.
“This road closure, though, is less amount of time than what a parade would be. At the end of the day. . . our Santa Claus parade would be much more obtrusive to individuals than this would be,” she said.
While there has been a lot of work put into the planning of the two-day event, town officials are already looking forward to hosting similar events in the future, Ische added.
“There’s nothing concrete yet, (but) there has been a lot of preliminary discussions (with) Triathlon Ontario. . . . We would never turn something like that away. We definitely would always try to accommodate events like this,” she said.
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