Local triathlete Krueger races to victory against elite field

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This article was published 16/07/2023 (853 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It looks like Anja Krueger is just getting started.

On Saturday, a mere seven days after her sensational debut on the Americas Triathlon Cup circuit landed her on the podium with a third-place finish in Montreal, the 20-year-old from East St. Paul was even better Saturday, beating the entire elite women’s field at an ATC event in Long Beach, Calif.

Krueger broke the tape in a time of 1:01:59, 15 seconds ahead of runner-up Hiraku Fukuoka of Japan.

“I knew physically I had the fitness and the capacity to be able to do this and so I wasn’t really shocked about the way I executed the race in terms of my physical capacity but I was a little bit shocked at how I was able to navigate the technical or the tactical side of things,” said Krueger in a phone interview.

Krueger emerged from the water in fifth place after clocking a 10:09 during the 750-metre ocean swim, rode the 20-kilometre bike leg in 32:12 (24th in the 40-competitor field) and blazed to the front with a event best five-kilometre run of 17:18 to earn the gold medal.

She started the running leg of the race in sixth place and finally took the lead at the start of the third lap of a 1.25-kilometre running course and never looked back.

“As soon as I figured out that I was kind of gaining on the people in front of me it just gave me confidence and I was able to just kind of trust my body, trust how my legs were feeling that I was going to be able to catch them,” said Krueger. “And then I think probably at around one and a half laps, I knew I kind of had it. I felt really, really good.”

A strong contingent of Canadians occupied four of the next five positions: Desirae Ridenour of Cowichan Bay, B.C. (1:02:20), Sophia Howell of Airdrie, Alta. (1:02:38), Kamille Larocque of Gatineau, Que. (1:02:48) and Brittany Warly of Colorado Springs, Colo. (1:02:50) finished third, fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively.

Krueger, the silver medallist in women’s triathlon at the 2022 Canada Summer Games, made a full-time commitment to the sport earlier this year after two seasons on a swimming scholarship at the University of British Columbia.

This fall, she is transferring to the University of Victoria where she will be training at Triathlon Canada’s National Performance Centre.

With her background in competitive swimming, Krueger’s running prowess may have caught some competitors off guard.

“I might have been kind of too new still to the field for people to totally figure out that the running was gonna be my big strength,” said Krueger. “I think maybe they thought I had a good race but now I think they know.”

Krueger will taking two days off at home before a return to training this week. The next competition on her schedule is the ATC stop in Edmonton on Aug. 26.

In other Manitoba triathlon news:

— Oak Bluff’s Tyler Mislawchuk raced to ninth in Hamburg Super Sprint Worlds, which were being staged for the first time as an elimination format at the World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships.

The 28-year-old captured a spot in Saturday’s 10-man final super-sprint dash, which included a 300-metre swim, 7.5-kilometre bike and a 1.75-kilometre run.

Mislawchuk clocked a time of 19:47. His placing was one better than his previous best world championship performance — a 10th at the 2018 worlds in Australia.

— Winnipeg’s Blake Harris placed 31st at men’s division at the junior worlds in Hamburg on Thursday. His time of 52:32 was more than a minute behind winner Joao Nunu Batista of Portugal (51:11). Quebec City’s Mathis Beaulieu was third.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14