Posted: March 22, 2006

Triathlon: American Elite Athletes Shine in Early Season Races

Colorado Springs, Colorado (March 21, 2006) - The 2006 elite triathlon racing season has begun and American athletes have answered the opening bell with strong medal performances in the early rounds of competition.

Mark Fretta, a resident of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, came out of the gates fast, and scored his highest place ever in a World Cup by taking the Silver medal at the first ITU World Cup of the year on March 3rd in Doha, Qatar. Fretta raced a tactically smart race, breaking away from the main pack late in the bike leg to establish a gap that only the fleet footed Australian, Brad Kahlefeldt, the 2005 World Championship bronze medalist, could make up on the run. Kahlefeldt won the race by only six seconds over Fretta. Ukranian Volodymyr Polikarpenko chased Fretta from the pack on the run to take third and round out the podium.

In the elite women’s race in Qatar, the ever consistent Laura Bennett attacked the race, leading out of the water as well as out of the second transition onto the run. In the end it was World’s Silver medalist Annabel Luxford who ran away with the race win, twelve seconds in front of German Joelle Franzmann who took the silver medal. Bennett did the USA proud as usual, running strong off the bike to hold on for the bronze medal.

Other Americans competing for the USA in Doha included elite women Sara Groff (7th), Julie Swail (8th), Jasmine Oenick (17th), and Rebecca Wassner (29th). The rest of the US men’s team included Doug Friman (14th), Manny Huerta (25th), Derek Kite (32nd), Michael Arce (34th), and Haven Barnes (40th).

On the other side of the world from Doha was the next event of the year for the US team, the FAST Triathlon in Florianopolis, Brazil on March 6th. The FAST triathlon is contested under the grueling and exciting “enduro” format where competitors must complete three consecutive triathlon races consisting of a 250 meter swim, followed by a 4 kilometer cyle leg, and finishing with a 1.4 kilometer run. Each race is separated by only fifteen minutes of rest. The distances, which might seem short to the average amateur triathlete, result in blazing fast racing that is incredibly hard on the competitors, especially considering that the event is the first one of the season for most competitors who are still searching for their racing legs. In addition to the brutally fast racing speeds, the event is held in typically hot and humid Florianopolis, Brazil.

To spite the fact that all three American teammates traveled from the cold and dry climate of their Colorado homes and training grounds, Brian Fleishman, Andy Potts, and Matt Reed brought home the team title, led by Potts’s three consecutive race wins. USA stole the title from their Brazilian hosts who finished second while the Canadian team finished third.

The action then moved back to the Middle East for the second stop on the ITU World Cup circuit in Aqaba, Jordan on March 10th. Traveling directly from their race finishes in Qatar the weekend prior, Mark Fretta, Doug Friman, Manny Huerta, Laura Bennett, Sara Groff and Julie Swail toed the line in Jordan.

In the women’s race, in the tradition of retired American legends Sheila Taormina and Barb Lindquist, Laura Bennett and Sarah Groff snuck away from the rest of the field on the swim and established a twenty five second American lead as they headed out onto the bike. As she had done in Doha, Bennett’s aggressive racing won her two of the three race primes as the duo of Groff and Bennett held off the field for four of the six bike laps.

Onto the run, nobody had an answer for the young Portuguese superstar Vanessa Fernandez who torched the 10 kilometer run course in 33:13. Running over a minute faster than any other female athlete on the day, Fernandez won her eighth World Cup race at a mere twenty years of age.

The rest of the podium was a repeat of a week prior in Doha with Joelle Franzmann from Germany taking the Silver medal and American Laura Bennett keeping the US in the medals again by taking a bronze.

The men’s race in Jordan saw a ten man breakaway established early in the bike leg that would work well together to stay out in front of the Americans who were stuck in the second pack. Ukranian Volodymyr Polikarpenko took advantage of his position in the lead group and ran to the top of the podium, taking the World #1 ranking after two events. Veteran Doug Friman led the way for the USA finishing 11th while Mark Fretta backed up his second place in Doha with a 14th place finish in Aqaba, establishing him in the top five in the World Cup rankings.

After two World Cup events, the USA has two men and three women ranked in the top fifteen led by Laura Bennett’s number two and Mark Fretta’s number five World Cup ranking. The FAST triathlon team victory combined with the early season ITU successes are promising signs for another successful season for American triathletes.

Source: USA Triathlon.

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