The 2025 Prince George Iceman saw an incredibly close and strange finish, coming down to the final swim.
James Sader was the first solo male racer out of the pool, finishing with a time of 2:04:40.8.
Josiah Wilkinson was close behind, emerging from the final swim with a time of 2:06:35.1.
There was a bit of confusion following the race. Sader had forgotten to take his timing chip with him into the pool, and while he was retrieving it from his other belongings, Wilkinson had finished before he returned with it.
“It was good, really nice and sunny, didn’t crash on the skate, didn’t get frostbite,” Sader said following the race.
“I thought the swim went well until I finished the swim. The run was fun, didn’t seize up too much.”
An Iceman Spokesperson confirmed to Vista Radio that there were manual timers who noted Sader had gotten out of the pool first.
“I didn’t know he was that close, I was running with Conrad, my buddy, and we thought we were the ones ahead,” Wilkinson said.
“We were doing the 5K, we were kind of cruising, and I saw him and I saw the triple digits, and that’s usually been the solo, so I wasn’t sure where he was at, so I tried to pick it up the last 50.”
Wilkinson, 18, swims everyday, and hopes to become a national caliber triathlete.
While the swim was the strongest part of the day for Wilkinson, he felt the 10K run was the toughest part of the day with the cold temperatures.
“I was worried about my hands and toes and I wasn’t really worried about other parts, so it was pretty chilly out there,” he said.
“But then the sun came out and then it got better.”
Juliette Davies was the first solo female racer out of the pool, winning in her first time in the Iceman with a time of 2:16:39.9.
“I wasn’t sure how this whole thing was going to go, my roommate’s boyfriend taught me how to skate a month ago, so I was kind of nervous about getting through the skate,” Davies said.
“I was feeling confident on the run, that’s my background, and the swim so I was just trying to go out there and see what I could do on the ski and the skate, and hopefully it was all going to come together and apparently it did.”
Davies didn’t have a goal for a time.
“I looked up the results from last year, and I knew my runs would be competitive, but I really wasn’t sure what to make of the ski and the skate, and I didn’t want to put a lot of pressure on because I didn’t want to blow up too early,” she said.
“It was more just manage expectations, go out there, enjoy the ski, still got really tired by it, and then see what I can do on the run.”
She added she was feeling the impacts of the cold weather.
“My lungs in the beginning were pretty reactive to the cold air, so a lot of coughing, but once we got through the ski it felt fine.”
Full results can be found here.
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