While the familiar sun peaked out early in the day, the predicted rain clouds roared in on Friday as some of the elites gathered for a press conference to talk all about the upcoming 2015 Huatulco ITU Triathlon World Cup race on Sunday, June 14.

Lisa Perterer (AUT), Mateja Simic (SLO) and Luciano Taccone (ARG) met in front of a large local Mexican crowd at the Dreams Resort to speak about the upcoming race and represent the international athletes.

Lisa Perterer

“It is my first time being here and I am looking forward to the race on Sunday. I really like the heat and especially the hilly course. I am not sure how my run will be at the moment because I have had foot problems the last two months. My goal however is to defend my race number, but I think it will be hard because there are many good athletes on the start list—but we will see!”

Mateja Simic

“I have raced here the last five years, so I am really happy to be here. It is a really nice course, a really hard course. This year is also going to be a little bit of an adjustment because it is not Olympic, which I prefer. To do sprint distance, it will be harder, shorter and because of this there will be a higher level of competition. So I expect Sunday to be really hard and fast race. I hope to do well because it is coming close to the Olympics and everyone is looking for Olympic points, but I would like to be on top of that. We will see what I will be able to do because the level of competitors is higher.”

“I feel really welcome here, that is why I keep coming back to race the last five years. I am hoping that in the next few years I will be able to keep Huatulco in my competition.”

Luciano Taccone

“I’m very happy to be here, it’ very special for me. I hope to have a good race and good result again. For me, Sunday is significant for classification for Rio.  The classification for Rio is a bit difficult to get points, but this race will help me so I hope to do my best this weekend. The race is difficult with the hill each lap and the heat”