TORONTO—The nation’s best high-performance triathletes received a huge boost of support in their quest for the international podium as one of the top coaches in the world, Jamie Turner, has been recruited to lead the Canadians as national team coach, Triathlon Canada announced on Monday.

Turner, who has spent the better part of the last two decades coaching the world powerhouse Australians in the sport of triathlon in addition to being the Olympic coach for Chile in 2008, has made a habit out of producing countless World Championship winners. He will now bring his art to Canada where he will lead a new era of promising Canadian triathletes.

“We have a winner at all levels in Jamie Turner, and I am thrilled he is with us in Canada,” said Libby Burrell, high-performance director, Triathlon Canada, who has been focused on rebuilding the high-performance program since joining the federation one year ago. “Jamie has a very keen understanding of shaping a successful daily performance environment and is relentless in the pursuit of excellence which is key to winning medals in our sport. I believe this to be one of the most significant appointments in the history of our organization. We are honoured to have Jamie on our team.”

Boasting an obsessive desire and passion for coaching and winning, Turner will bring a world-leading perspective to a program that has demonstrated the tremendous potential to become world-class. Turner will work with high-performance coaches and programs to enhance the daily training and competitive environments, strengthen training groups with world-class partners to encourage athlete development, and create a an accountable development system from the junior to elite level.

“It is our role as coaches to develop the next generation of podium potential athletes for Canada to follow in the footsteps of the great Simon Whitfield, and to do this, I believe we have to raise the standard of high-performance coaching on home soil, while at the same time, expose our young talent to the real demands of competition,” said Turner. “Our goal is to win medals in major events, and our joint pursuit of this as a team will be relentless. Everything we do will target excellence.”

“As a coach, I feel it is vital to be a trailblazer and be prepared to take risks,” added Turner. “I commend Triathlon Canada fro looking outside the box, and work with me to introduce new ideas and innovations for the sport which I’m proud to be a part of.  This is a program with loads of potential. We will demand nothing short of excellence from our athletes, coaches and support staff, and together, I know we can, and will, win.”

Turner took up his role officially on November 25th and will be based out of Victoria BC. He will spend much of his time on the road working with athletes and coaches around Canada and abroad as the program moves to various venues to prepare and compete against the rest of the world on the WTS circuit.

Triathlon Canada is the governing body for triathlon in the country. Recognized as an Olympic medal sport since 2000, Triathlon Canada’s mandate is to promote, foster, organize and develop the sport of triathlon, and its related disciplines, in Canada. For more information on Triathlon Canada, please visit us at www.triathloncanada.com on the Internet.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Chris Dornan
Media and Public Relations
Triathlon Canada
T: 403-620-8731