Posted: October 30, 2004

Triathlon: U.S. Olympians Back in ActionThis Weekend

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Oct. 28, 2004) – U.S. Olympic triathletes Hunter Kemper and Victor Plata, along with their U.S. teammates, will be back in action Sunday at the International Triathlon Union World Cup race in Cancun, Mexico.

Kemper (Longwood, Fla.), who finished ninth at the Olympic Games triathlon on Aug. 26 in Athens, Greece, and Plata (San Luis Obispo, Calif.), who finished 27th, will be joined in the men's race by teammates Joe Umphenour (Bellevue, Wash.), Mark Fretta (Portland, Ore.), Doug Friman (Tucson, Ariz.), Andy Kelsey (Cupertino, Calif.), Matt Reed (Boulder, Colo.) and Derek Kite (Malibu, Calif.).

Among the international competition in the men's race will be Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Gaag, Great Britain's Stuart Hayes and Ukraine's Volodymyr Polikarpenko.

On the women's side, Julie Swail (Irvine, Calif.) and Joanna Zeiger (Boulder, Colo.), both 2000 Olympians (Swail in water polo and Zeiger in triathlon), will represent the United States.

They will have some stiff competition from several Olympians including Germany's Anja Dittmer, Britain's Michelle Dillon and Canada's Jill Savege and Carol Montgomery among others. Britain's Leanda Cave, who won the world triathlon championships in 2002 in Cancun, will also be racing.

The course will be a dream for runners. After a 1.5k, two-lap ocean swim, the athletes will face an eight-lap, 40k, flat bike course and a four-lap, 10k flat run course.

For more information and a complete start list, go to Triathlon.org.

Triathlon on TV

Outdoor Life Network is scheduled to show the 2004 Ironman USA Lake Placid triathlon, which was held July 25 in Lake Placid, N.Y., at 4 p.m. EST on Sunday. It will be shown again on Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST.

The ITU World Cup from Edmonton, Canada, which was held July 11, is scheduled to be shown at 1 p.m. EST on Tuesday. The men's race in Edmonton had to be cancelled due to severe rain and hail.

USA Triathlon is the national governing body for triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and winter triathlon in the United States. For more information on this and other stories related to USA Triathlon, please contact communications and media relations manager B.J. Evans at 719-597-9090, ext. 105 or at BJ@USATriathlon.org. USA Triathlon’s web site is USATriathlon.org.

From: USATriathlon.org.