Sylviane Puntous

0 Sylviane Puntous
Personal information
Date of birth	1963 (age 57)
place of birth	Montreal , Quebec , Canada
societies
successes
1983	National champion triathlon short distance
1983, 1984	3 × Ironman Hawaii winner
1985, 1992	2 × Third Triathlon Longue Distance de Nice
1986, 1987, 1989	3 × Second Ironman Hawaii
1989	Second triathlon Longue Distance de Nice
status
resigned

Sylviane Puntous (* 1963 in Montreal , Québec ) is a former Canadian triathlete . With two wins (1983 and 1984) and three second places at the Ironman Hawaii as well as two third places at the Longue Distance de Nice triathlon , she and her twin sister Patricia were one of the dominant women in the triathlon of the 1980s.

Career

Sylviane Puntous was born two minutes before her identical twin sister Patricia. Both grew up as children of French emigrants in Montreal and began swimming as children and adolescents , then switched to athletics , where both belonged to the Canadian elite over 1500 and 3000 m. In 1982 they switched to triathlon and started as one of the first professional triathletes.

Winner of the Ironman Hawaii 1983 and 1984

On October 22, 1983, Sylviane was the first non-American to win the Ironman Hawaii five minutes before her sister Patricia, who came in as the second wife. In 1984 both of them even repeated this double victory with a new course record. In 1985 the Puntous twins, like most top triathletes, preferred a start at the Longue Distance de Nice triathlon to a title defense in Hawaii, where Sylviane came third behind Erin Baker and Dave Scott's girlfriend at the time , Linda Buchanan.

In 1986 the “Puntous Twins” started again at the Ironman Hawaii, where this time Patricia Puntous was ahead and was the first woman to cross the finish line - but was subsequently disqualified with the charge of drafting on the bike. Since the judges were not sure which of the two twins was affected by the measure, they only implemented it at the finish. Sylviane Puntous came in second behind Paula Newby-Fraser, who was honored as the winner . In 1987 and 1989 Sylviane Puntous was able to achieve second place at the Ironman Hawaii twice. At the Triathlon International de Nice, the other important long-distance triathlon of the 1980s, she never got above third place in three other starts and always failed to Paula Newby-Fraser.

Sylviane Puntous had her greatest successes together with her sister on the short triathlon. In the six years from 1982 to 1988 alone, the twins were able to win first and second place in 68 of the 86 competitions in which they started in alternating order. Her focus was on the competitions of the U.S. Triathlon Series. While Sylviane was able to win more often over shorter distances - as long as they did not share first place hand-in-hand - she had to let her sister Patricia go first over longer distances.

Sylviane and Patricia Puntous are active in running today.

Awards

• In 2003, the Canadian Triathlon Association Triathlon Canada , which measures their influence on the sport against the above-average number of top female triathletes from Canada, honored Sylviane and Patricia Puntous with the induction into the Hall of Fame.

Sporting successes

(DNF - Did Not Finish )

Web links

• Profile and results of Sylviane Puntous in the ITU database at Triathlon.org , accessed on March 24, 2019 (English).
• Profile for Sylviane Puntous at the Institute for Applied Training Science , accessed on May 13, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Picture of the Puntous twins - 1984 at the Ironman Hawaii in Kona
2. ↑ Kevin Mackinnon: Sylviane and Patricia Puntous Set The Pace In The Early Ironman Days. World Triathlon Corporation , July 8, 2003, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Doug Robinson: Puntous Twins still holding two way races. In: The Deseret News . July 2, 1988, accessed March 19, 2016 . 
4. ^ Hall of Fame: Patricia & Sylviane Puntous. Triathlon Canada, 2003, archived from the original on December 13, 2015 ; accessed in 2003 .