Posted: June 8, 2007

Triathlon: World Cup Triathlon heads to Vancouver for North American leg

VANCOUVER - This Sunday, June 10th, the ocean-side city of Vancouver comes alive when it hosts the sixth stop of the 2007 BG Triathlon World Cup series. After races in Australia, Japan, Portugal, South Africa and Spain, the focus shifts to Vancouver for the first of three consecutive world cup races in North America. This will be the first time since 1991 that Vancouver will host a World Cup event. The start lists for the next leg of competition read like a who's who of triathlon with multiple Olympic, world and continental champions spattered with more then a few Olympians and world cup winners. All will race for valuable Olympic qualification points and more then, a combined, US$1million in prize money. This weekend's race will double as a test-event for the 2008 BG Triathlon World Championships scheduled to be held in Vancouver on June 6th-8th, next year. Current Under23 world champion, Erin Densham of Australia, has had numerous top results this yet but has yet to claim the first world cup title of her young career. Perhaps this weekend can be her chance with her two top rivals, team mate Emma Snowsill and Portuguese star, Vanessa Fernandes, not racing. Hometown favourite Lauren Groves of Canada will also be looking for the first world cup win of her career, coming close a couple of times in 2006. Veteran Rina Hill, another Aussie, will join Densham on the start list hoping to add Vancouver world cup gold to her impressive list of world cup wins. Other past world cup winners on the start list include: Joelle Franzmann of Germany, Jill Savege of Canada and Samantha Warriner of New Zealand. Leading the men's field is 2000 Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield of Canada and American powerhouse Andy Potts. Whitfield, who leads all other active men with the most world cup wins, will be looking for his first win since 2004. This will be the first world cup of 2007 for recently crowned USA national champion Potts. Other men to watch include Olympian Simon Thompson of Australia and his team mate Brendan Sexton. Both men started the season in top shape, finishing in the top-10 at the difficult world cup opener in Mooloolaba, Australia among a top international field. The Canadians have brought their 'A' team to Vancouver, with Paul Tichelaar, Brent McMahon, Colin Jenkins and Kyle Jones, in hopes of placing multiple athletes in the top-10 and securing the country three Olympic spots. Next weekend is Des Moines, Iowa who will make history as the richest ever on the elite triathlon circuit with a total purse of more than US$700,000 in cash and prizes, and national NBC television coverage. The first-place winners in the men's and women's divisions will each take home paychecks of US$200,000, filtering down to US$3,000 for the 15th place man and woman. The final leg is the long-standing Edmonton world cup, who after years of top level organisation and competition will say farewell to ITU racing. Home to the landmark 2001 world championships, the river city is set to host a grand finale in two weeks time. With the recent addition of North American broadcaster Fox Sports Net to the ITU family of broadcasters, the world's eyes will be squarely focused on the continent as the world's top triathletes swim-bike-run their way into the triathlon history books. Website: Triathlon.org.