The 1995 edition of Ultraman Canada is quite a strange one .It is almost like it never happend because you never really hear anyone talking about it.That to me is a great oversight as on paper,even though there were only eight starters the top three men were by far and away the most talented threesome that had fronted Ultraman Canada to date.Sergio Cordiero from Brasil was already a worldwide legend in the International Ultra Triathlon Association circuit with several wins in multi-Iron distance races.Germany's Jochen Baumann had turned up for the race with an Ironman best time of around 9:08 and then there was local Penticton triathlete Richard Diamond who,at the time,was the fastest local in town with an Ironman best of around 9:12-9:16.It was promising to be a great race up front and with the race adopting the standard Ultraman distance as laid down by the powers at be in Kona all kinds of history was to be made with every win a new course record.Thankfully due to this change I will forever hold the swim,bike,combined day one and two,and the total overall race records for the old Ultraman Canada distances,something which the good folks at Ultraman Canada have seen fit to leave out of any historical records.Thank's guys!!!
That year I was part of the crew for local favourite Richard Diamond.I say local favourite with a tinge of sadness as to most people in the triathloncommunity Richard wasn't too popular.He had a hard time with what he percieved as the pressure of being the top Ironman in town and mixed wih his fiesty personality it didn't go down to well.I liked Richard though and always thought that he was a greatly misunderstood guy.The fact that the crew he had for the second two days were not from Penticton just showed how little support he had in the community.To be fair he did have the odd, very public confrontation from time to time but hey the guy had character.
I wasn't available to help Richard on day one and if memory serves me right the Bike Barn from Penticton had a crew out thier for him .They had always looked after Richard and he was rarely seen racing, or training for that matter, without some kind of Bike Barn gear on.They brought him home that day in first place overall but not by too much.He had won the 10k swim in a new record time of 3hr 26 minutes but only exited the water a mere 3:30ish in front of Jochen.It seemed that there was a race to be had.Sergio did his usual impersonation of a brick trying to swim and came out of the water about 50 minutes behind Jochem in fifth place,behind the top two women.If that guy could only swim!!On the bike the race continued but Richard managed to pull away from Jochen and take another 16 minutes lead by the end of the days proceedings.Sergio had a pretty average ride but still was able to face the finish line without shame as me managed to pass both women and finish in third overall.It didn't look good for Sergio though as he was now 1hr 21min behind Richard and just over an hour behind Jochen.He is a great runner but he would have to pull some time back on thse two during day two for his run to help him at all.
Day one also saw our little mate Tracey Preston set two womens records as she won the swim and the bike to place her a very healthy 45 minutes in front of Rebeca Wallick with Pat Rowles rounding out the womens placings a few hours further back.
Day two saw Richard with a crew change.I was available and showed up ready to help Richard win the damn thing,a friend of ours Derek Smith who was in town training for Ironman stepped up and the third guy was another Aussie in town training for Ironman and that was Kevin Cutjar.For those who are familiar with that name there is a reason.Later that year Kevin went on to win the Ultraman World Championships in Kona,Shortly afterward he turned pro and proceeded to become a multi-time-time top ten finisher in Ironman races around the world with an Ironman best time of around 8:38.He also went on to start his own extremly successful triathlon coaching business in Penticton,Impact Multisports.As the Ultraman Canada results page will show,he is also the current Ultraman Canada Champion having won in fine style in 2010.But those days were all in the future for Kev and that weekend all we really worried about was getting Richard to the finish line happy( a major problem) and in front.
Day two saw the only wet,miserable day that I have witnessed in the nine events I have been part of.Unfortunaely for Richard it didn't suit him at all and he suffered mightily.He and Jochen were riding pretty closely all day but Richard soon began to suffer with neck and back problems and he stopped a few times for me to give his neck a massage.he wasn't in much of a good mood either as demostrated when he lost it over the fact the Kiwi pro Brendon Downey was using a casual long Ironman training ride to spectate.He was riding not far behind Richard for quite some time and it really got to him.We had to very politely tell Brendon to bugger off,which isn't that hard for an Aussie to do to a Kiwi.Richard managed to turn it around near the end and as I remenber made up some great time on Jochen to finish in second place for the day only losing 13 minutes or so to the German.Sergio rolled in a further 28 minutes behind to give himself almost no chance of catching either f the two guys in front of him.
Tracey Preston managed to put to bed the demons of not making the bike cut-off the previous year by finishing under the 12hr time limit and with the other two females not finishing the stage she was now the clear favourite to be the first female Ultraman Canada Champion.She just had to finish day three in under 12 hrs.
Day three started as expected with Sergio taking off on his own and running beautifully into the distancce.You really havee to have seen him run to understand how he looks when running it is amazing.Richard and Jochen weren't at all interested in looks tey were in a solid battle to win the race.Richard was only 7 minutes in front of Jochen at the start of the day and he ran like a man posessed,until something happened,Richard changed.It was quite bizzare really but at some stage during the later portions of the run someone produced some blow-up animals,big ones and Richard was seen running down the fire-road with and inflateble penguin on his head.Now if ever there was a WTF moment that was it.This was one of the most uptight,hard to get along with triathletes in town,messing around during the middle of a double marathon run.It looked like the Ultraman Gods had claimed another one.It wa slike he released years of pressure and realised that it was okay to have fun.
The back half of the run wasn't too much fun for him when he found out that Jochen was closing in.The smile left Richards face and it was all about business again..Unfortunately when you let your focus go all the other stuff can follow and Richard started to melt down physically and mentally.About 70 kilometeres into the race he was in the middle of the road,down on his haunches,staring at the dirt.There was nothing anyone could do he just would not move.Steve "the voice of Ironman"King turned up and told us to wait and he would talk to Richard.now if you know Steve you will know that he is a vey spiritual guy and is a master motivator.He has all kinds of ways of talking people through things and I could only imagine him telling Richard to draw energy from the rocks and trees and birds and all that hippy guru stuff.The proobllem was Steve had to get to the finish line before Sergio so he couldn't spend the time to get Richard moving.In the meantime somene took a photo of the three crew members all sitting in a line together on the hood of the Bike Barn wagon lounging back on the windshield.Hey if Richard didn't want to play then neither did we.
I ended up walking over to him and saying that,I knew how much it hurt because I was the last guy to win this race and if he wanted to win the damn thing he needed to run,it was that simple.I helped him up and he started first to walk and then to run.Once he realised that he was getting close he was running well and continued all the way to the finish to beat Jochen by a mere two minutes that day and become the 1995 Ultraman Champion by eight and a half minutes,the closest finish to date.Sergio had smashed the run record with a 7:10 but it wasn't nearly enough to take anything but third.
Tracey Preston did manage to finish the run in a time that was faster than mine from the previous year and she became the first female to officially finish Ultraman Canada and the first ever Ultraman Canada Champion.We were all so happy for her and it was just the beggining of a long history between Tracey and Ultraman,both in Canada and at the World Championships in Kona.
I believe the Ultraman Canada experience changed Richard for the better.I think it allowed him to let go of a lot of what pissed him off in his life and we got to see the real Richard Diamond.I had never once had a beer with the guy,been to his house or even just done much more than socialising at races but now it was all different and I was very happy for him.Richard now lives in Whistler,Bristish Columbia and the rare occaisions we get to see him are always a treat.
Ultraman Canada results 1995
www.ultramancanada.com/race-results/1995-2
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