Tourism Acapulco organised a picture-perfect day for triathlon as a good field of the best athletes from the Americas dove into the picturesque venue at Hornos Beach, Acapulco.
The event in Acapulco was the 2004 ITU Pan American Championships with qualification points for the Athens Olympic Games and places 1 to 3 qualifying for the 2004 World Championships in Madeira.
In the women’s event, Sheila Taormina of the USA, one of the best swimmers in the sport took an early lead from the start. Joanna Zieger, also from the USA and the 4th finisher in the Sydney 2004 Olympic Games managed to stay with Taormina throughout the swim. Suzanne Weckend from Canada surprised everyone by staying with the leaders through the swim and onto the bike course, then grabbing one of Canada’s 6 spots in the 2004 Madeira World Championships.
The chase pack out of the water was led by Kelly Handel of the USA, followed by her American Team-mates Julie Swail and Amanda Stevens, followed by Brazilian teammates Sandra Soldan and Carla Moreno{/exp:tag_this}.
The trio at the front, Taormina, Zieger and Weckend worked well on the bike, increasing their lead to over 2 minutes as they started the 10km run.
With air temperature in the upper twenties, Taormina romped home with the fastest run split of the day to finish 30 seconds ahead of Zeiger. Weckend held on to finish comfortably in 3rd place, well ahead of Julie Swail in 4th and Dr. Sandra Soldan in 5th.
The top 10 results are:
1, TAORMINA, Sheila, USA, 01:57:51
2, ZEIGER, Joanna, USA, 01:58:23
3, WECKEND, Suzanne, CAN, 01:59:32
4, SWAIL, Julie, USA, 02:01:02
5, SOLDAN, Sandra, BRA, 02:01:15
6, MORENO, Carla, BRA, 02:02:17
7, COOK, Kelly, USA, 02:03:13
8, GEIJO, Pamela, ARG, 02:03:22
9, HARRISON, Jessica, GBR, 02:03:44
10, BENNIGSON, Courtney, USA, 02:03:56
In the men’s event, the current Pan American Champion, Hunter Kemper of the USA swam with teammate Andy Potts who posted the fastest swim split of the day at 18:10.
The duo teamed up for the 40km bike section and worked well together, putting time on the chase pack which was led out onto the bike course by US Teammates Doug Friman and Michael Smedley.
Kemper and Potts’ effort produced the fastest bike split at 57:24, which enabled Kemper, the best runner in the field, to cruise home with a 10km time of 29:15.
Andy Potts was second with a run time over a minute slower than Kemper.
Javier Rosas of Mexico was 3rd, much to the delight of the huge Mexican crowd that had gathered on Hornos Beach for the event.Top 10 results are:
1, KEMPER, Hunter, USA, 01:45:58
2, POTTS, Andy, USA, 01:47:31
3, ROSAS, Javier, MEX, 01:47:40
4, PLATA, Victor, USA, 01:48:19
5, FONTANA, Daniel, ARG, 01:48:22
6, MOREIRA, Juraci, BRA, 01:48:33
7, FLEISCHMANN, Brian, USA, 01:48:54
8, FRIMAN, Doug, USA, 01:48:59
9, VIFIAN, Marcel, USA, 01:49:10
10, SMEDLEY, Michael, USA, 01:49:13