HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Rick Hellard relied on crowd support to reach IRONMAN Canada Ottawa finish line

By Martin Cleary

It took a village to get experienced triathlete Rick Hellard to the finish line Sunday at the inaugural IRONMAN Canada Ottawa endurance race.

Hellard, who has completed about 30 IRONMAN competitions around the world with a best time of eight hours, 41 minutes over the gruelling swim-cycle-run distances, knew it would be tough at age 59, having just completed bladder cancer treatments last week, dealing with iliac artery in both legs and having his heart powered by a pacemaker.

But the support the owner/co-head coach of ROCS Swimming received in the concluding run segment from family, friends and clients kept his spirit and drive alive and allowed him to run under the Murray Street finish banner in downtown Ottawa.

The opening 3.8-kilometre swim in the Ottawa River off Britannia Beach went better than expected for Hellard in one hour, three minutes and 53 seconds.

The veteran multi-sport Ottawa athlete deliberately stayed relaxed and comfortable during the 180-kilometre cycling segment, which he completed in 5:24:06. He wanted to prepare himself as best he could for the marathon run.

But as soon as he started the 42.195-kilometre run, Hellard felt like he was done.

“It was pretty humbling to put it mildly,” Hellard said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “At the same time, the support from the whole route crowd was phenomenal.

“My followers were all over the place and that was extremely motivational.”

Each athlete needed to complete two laps of the running course to finish the race and earn the IRONMAN designation.

“It (course) was out-and-back twice and I knew where all my supporters were. I was running to the next person and then the next person.

“I dug pretty deep. I was happy I got it done.”

The final results show Hellard completed the 42.195-kilometre in an agonizing 5:15:59 for a combined time of 11:52:27. He placed 552nd out of about 3,000 registered athletes, 438th among the male runners and 26th in the 55-59 age class.

Hellard used a stop-and-start, stop-and-talk, stop-and-get-a-photo approach to survive the run, which lasted almost the entire afternoon for him.

As he chugged along on the running course, he estimated he stopped about 10 to 15 times. But he used the time well to chat with his supporters for about a minute each time to top up his energy and motivation levels.

“I’m not super proud, yet everyone else is proud of me,” Hellard added as his wife Nancy Coke chimed in from another room with her verbal support. “It will come around.”

He put the brakes on to chat with Somersault Events co-owner Adam Kourakis and his daughter, say hello to friends and learn from a Cornwall athlete that he was disqualified during the cycling portion for passing in a non-passing zone.

“I still have a good sense of humour. I knew what I was getting into. It was tough. I expected I’d go about 10 kilometres before I would feel it (overall discomfort and pain), but it was 20 to 30 steps in before I felt bad,” explained Hellard, whose longest run this season covered only 15 kilometres.

As he made his way slowly around the running course twice, he was inspired by his legion of supporters. His followers tracked his progress via sportstats.ca, which gave his times through the day. He had the third most viewers on the race’s Watchlist.

“Fortunately, there were a lot of people out there. My group wasn’t in one specific location, but splattered all over,” Hellard said. “I crossed the finish line into the arms of two of my clients (also race volunteers), Heather and Len Ireland, and there were two former clients also helping out.”

A neighbour took care of his bike at the end of his race. Everywhere he went there was someone with words of encouragement, a smile or making some uplifting noise.

“I’m extremely thankful for the number of people out there and for their support,” Helland added.

Toronto’s Luke Evans, a Carleton University graduate, won the inaugural IRONMAN Canada Ottawa race in 8:40:22, giving him a margin of victory of 22:05 over Shane Lynch of La Tuque, PQ.

With five years of multi-sports competitions under his belt, Evans felt he had a good chance of placing first in his first IRONMAN. In the end he called it “a dream come true” and “surreal.”

Nicholas Schmidt of Ottawa was 10th in the men’s and overall standings in 9:19:04.

Gatineau’s Alissa Heiskanen, a graduate of the University of Ottawa, was the women’s IRONMAN Canada Ottawa champion in 9:32:46. She also won the women’s 25-29 age class and was 17th overall.

Leah West of Chelsea, PQ, was fifth in 10:08:45 as a women’s 40-44 competitor, and Lauren Miller, racing in the women’s 18-24 category, was 10th in 10:29:46.

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RAY XIE HELPS WESTERN WIN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY MEN’S TENNIS CROWN

Ottawa’s Ray Xie is a national university tennis champion.

Xie, a third-year sciences student in 2024-25, helped the Western University Mustangs capture their first men’s title in eight years at the Canadian University Tennis Championships in Laval, PQ.

Western defeated the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 4-1 in the men’s championship round. Xie earned a point for the Mustangs with a 6-2, 6-3 decision over Jim Cameron.

In the semifinals, Xie defeated Hamza Eltoukhi 6-4, 6-3 as Western turned back Dalhousie University Tigers 7-0.

Xie also helped Western turn back the University of Toronto with a singles victory in the 2024-25 OUA men’s championship final. He also was named an OUA all-star.

RIDEAU VIEW’S MARK MACKAY WINS SECOND KAWARTHA INVITATIONAL GOLF TITLE

Mark Mackay birdied two of the final three holes, including a 30-footer on No. 18, to win his second title at the Kawartha Invitational golf tournament in Peterborough.

The Rideau View Golf Club member, who was the tournament champion in 2007 as a member of the Kawartha Golf Club, scored a one-stroke victory over Kawartha’s Tyler McDannold in the 79th championship.

Mackay carded rounds of 69-69-73 for a two-under-par total of 211, which allowed him to share the moment with his four-year-old daughter and his parents.

“It’s special any time you win this tournament with the list of past champions,” Mackay told Peterborough Examiner sports director Mike Davies.

The champions list includes Taylor Pendrith, who won the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson PGA tournament, Moe Norman, Ben Kerr and his cousin Robert Mackay in 2017.

“It has always been a very family-oriented weekend. When my granny was alive, she would come and watch and always wanted to know how well the boys were doing,” Mark Mackay explained.

“It has always been a long weekend rooted around family and golf. To have my daughter there as the next generation of Mackays was cool.”

Mackay also has earned several second-place finishes in recent years.

JONATHAN DAVID PAYS TRIBUTE TO DAD, WILL WEAR NO. 30

Ottawa’s Jonathan David will wear uniform number 30 for his first season with Juventus in Italy’s Serie A, one of the top men’s soccer leagues in the world.

“I’ve picked the number 30, which is important to me, because it’s my father’s birthday,” David told Lorenzo Bettoni, editor of Football Italia, at a press conference.

David, who spent the past five seasons as a prolific scorer for Lille in France, started training with Juventus on July 24.

“It’s a great feeling to be part of a team like Juventus,” David continued. “The first week went well and my teammates helped me a lot.”

NORTH AMERICAN EQUESTRIAN SILVER MEDAL FOR LIVIA MARTIN, VICO G

Livia Martin of Manotick and Vico G helped the Canadian equestrian team win a silver medal in the junior jumping category at the North American Youth Championships in Traverse City, Michigan.

Martin and Vico G teamed to produce two clean rounds in the team competition as Canada finished with 19.38 points for second place. The United States Zone 4 team took the gold medal with 11.23 points and the United States Zone 2 squad was third at 21.51 points.

The other members of the junior silver-medal winning team were Sofia Popescu on Katorose HV, Giuliana Dim on Espoir de l’Ermitage and Isabella Erlick on Teucare KDW Z.

JUBINVILLE, REINHART EARN OVGA SENIOR GOLF TITLES

Lise Jubinville of the Hylands Golf Club and Dwight Reinhart of the Ottawa Hunt were the respective women’s and men’s champions at the 36-hole Ottawa Valley Golf Association senior championships at the Loch March and Whitetail golf clubs.

Jubinville fired rounds of 74 and 78 for an eight-over-par 152, while Hylands’ Diane Dolan was runner-up at 77-77-154. Brockville’s Teri de Luis was third at 82-75-157.

Reinhart clinched the men’s title, going two shots over par with rounds of 72 and 74 for a 146 total. Peter Harrison of the Hunt was second at 75-74-149.

There was a four-way tie for third place – Norm Baird, Greensmere, 75-80-155; Michael Coon, Lombard Glen, 76-79-155; Louis Lefebvre, Buckingham, 77-78-155; and Stephane Racine, Hautes Plaines, 79-76-155.

END NOTES

· Joel Voyer and Siqi Zhang won a national youth sailing title in Kingston. The Nepean Sailing Club teammates were the best of 46 boats in the gold fleet of the Club 420 Youth Championship.

· Former Carleton University Ravens men’s basketball head coach Dave Smart is the head coach for the Canadian men’s U23 team for the GLOBL JAM 2025 at Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre Aug. 13-17. Smart, who led the Ravens to 13 USports men’s championships and 656 wins in 18 seasons, has entered his second season as head coach of the NCAA’s University of the Pacific Tigers in Stockton, California. Canada will play Brazil on Aug. 13, the United States on Aug. 14 and Japan on Aug. 16.

· Canada bounced back from its only preliminary pool loss to Chile to defeat the South American nation 2-1 for the men’s bronze medal at the Pan American Cup field hockey championships in Montevideo, Uruguay. Forward Flynn McCulloch of Chelsea was a member of the Canadian men’s senior team. Canada posted a 3-2 record. In the women’s Pan American Cup, Canada finished fifth, after a 2-0 win over Mexico. Ottawa’s Rowan Harris, a goalkeeper, and Kenzie Girgis, a midfield player, competed for Canada, which had a 3-2 overall record.

· Three players from the Greater Ottawa Fastball League shared in the medal celebrations at the Softball Canada men’s U20 Canadian championship in Saskatoon. Conner Hopper, who plays for West Carleton Electric, was picked up by Plattsville Lightning, which went undefeated at 6-0 in the preliminary round but settled for the silver medal, after losing the final 6-4 to Chatsworth Longhorns. Quebec picked up Cade Kuehl and Hunter Beauregard from the Quyon Flyers and finished with the bronze medal.