Defending Champs Return to AuSable Marathon
20 Jul
Defending champions Andrew Triebold and Steve Lajoie are set to defend their title at the 62nd Annual Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon this weekend.
Triebold, of Spring Arbor, Michigan and Lajoie of Mirabel, Quebec, who won last year’s race by nearly a half hour, put some suspense into the registration process this year, signing up to race at the end of the day last Friday, after 90 other teams had registered.
The pair, which swept last year’s triple crown of canoe racing, has one jewel of the 2009 triple crown already in hand. Triebold and Lajoie won the General Clinton Canoe Regatta in May. Last year the duo won the General Clinton, the AuSable, and Quebec’s Classique Internationale de Canots.
The paddlers from last year’s runner-up boat — Matt Streib and Steve Kolonich — will compete with other partners this year. Streib of Bristol, Indiana, will paddle with Steve Corlew of Brighton, Michigan, while Kolonich will paddle with his father Ken Kolonich.
A record field has entered the 2009 AuSable Marathon. As of Friday afternoon, 91 two-paddler teams had entered the 120-mile, non-stop race from Grayling to Oscoda, Michigan.
