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ITU BIG ISLAND WORLD CUP PACKED WITH STELLAR FIELD
Waikoloa Resort, 1 April 2000
Round 2 of the ITU Triathlon World Cup Series gets underway on April 1 at 9:30 a.m. for the women and 12:00 p.m. for the men. The 1.5 km swim will talk place in the 21oC crystal clear waters of Anaehoomalu Bay beside the beautiful, newly renovated Outrigger Waikoloa Beach Resort.
Defending Champion and current World Ranked Number 1, Michellie Jones of Australia will be a force to reckon with. Carol Montgomery of Canada coming off a decisive victory at the Rio World Cup has proven that she is back to racing form and does not find the heat an adversary. Both experienced athletes are up against a formidable team from the USA led by World Ranked #24 Susan Bartholomew, #28 ranked Gail Laurence, #37 ranked Laura Reback and the master of racing in the lava, Karen Smyers. Sheila Taormina, also from the USA and an Olympic Gold Medallist in Swimming (Atlanta) will undoubtedly exit the water first. She will be looking for other strong swimmers such as Joelle Franzmann of Germany and Sharon Donnelly of Canada to work with on the 8-lap bike course against the real opposition – the wind and blistering heat of the lava fields.
Other women who could join Jones and Montgomery in the chase pack include other world-class runners, the likes of Erika Molnar of Hungary and Haruna Hosoya of Japan.
In the men’s event, Dimitry Gaag of Kazakhstan who following a win in Rio is now #1 Ranked Triathlete in the world and is the man to beat. But again, the other great runners in the field like Philippe Fattori of France and Gilberto Gonzalez of Venezuela could make the difference on the 4 lap boiler plate run course through trails, roads and hard-packed sand. At the end of the day it could be the athletes who are consistent at all three disciplines that reach the podium. Athletes like Andrew Johns of Great Britain, the 1999 winner of the IOC President Award for being the outstanding athlete of the year, the current World Ranked Number 2 Hamish Carter of New Zealand, the 1996 World Champion Chris McCormack of Australia, or Volodymyr Polikarpenko of the Ukraine.
In all 120 Olympic hopefuls will toe to the line on the Big Island, representing 17 countries in the women and 28 countries in the men. |
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