Taormina, Kemper lead 2005 World team
By B.J. Hoeptner // USA Triathlon // September 8, 2005
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| Photo by Getty Images |
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – World No. 1 ranked Hunter Kemper will lead a large and talented U.S. team to Gamagori, Japan for the International Triathlon Union Elite World Triathlon Championships on Sept. 10-11.
Elite, under-23 and junior (16-19 year old) triathletes will compete in draft legal races in Japan and USA Triathlon is sending one of its strongest teams in years.
Kemper (Longwood, Fla.) a two-time Olympian, has been ranked No. 1 in the world since May 2005. He has reached the podium in 10 ITU World Cup races, but has never finished better than seventh at an elite world championship.
In fact, no U.S. man has reached the podium at an ITU world championship since Mike Pigg took bronze in 1991. However, that may change this year as five members of the U.S. men’s team are ranked in the ITU top 20.
Joining Kemper in Japan will be 2004 Olympian Andy Potts (Princeton, N.J.), former U.S. national champion Matt Reed (Boulder, Colo.), Joe Umphenour (Bellevue, Wash.), Mark Fretta (Portland, Ore.) and Seth Wealing (Fowler, Ind.), who joined the team after Victor Plata declined his position to attend law school.
The U.S. women’s team will also be formidable, led by three-time Olympian and defending world champion Sheila Taormina (Livonia, Mich.), 2004 Olympian and former world No. 1 Barb Lindquist (Alta, Wyo.), 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Susan Williams (Littleton, Colo.), 2000 Olympian Joanna Zeiger (Boulder, Colo.), 2004 Olympic alternate Laura Bennett (North Palm Beach, Fla.) and 2005 U.S. national champion Becky Lavelle (Los Gatos, Calif.).
Taormina and New Zealand’s Bevin Docherty are the defending world champions.
The under-23 men’s team will consist of Jarrod Shoemaker (Sudbury, Mass.), winner of the Ford New York City Triathlon, U.S. under-23 national champion Matt Seymour (Honolulu, Hawaii), Manuel Huerta (Miami, Fla.) and Brenden O’Brien (Escondido, Calif.).
The women’s team will be made up of women’s U23 national champion Jasmine Oeinck (Littleton, Colo.), Sara McLarty (DeLand, Fla.) and Michelle Lindsay (Herndon, Wash.). Jenna Shoemaker (Sudbury, Mass.).
Finally, the junior team will be made up of U.S. junior boys champion Duncan Hoge (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Steven Duplinsky (Kensington, Md.) and Kyle Hughes (Lake Forest, Calif.), U.S. junior girls champion Jennifer Spieldenner (Findlay, Ohio), Yasmine White (Arcata, Calif.); Jenna Yeakel (Canton, Ohio) and Alexandria Lechner (Clearwater, Fla.).
The elite and U23 race courses will consist of a 1.5k, two-lap swim, a 40k, seven-lap bike and a 10k, four-lap run.
The junior race will be draft legal but have a shorter course: 750m, one-lap swim, a 20k, four-lap bike and a 5k, two-lap run.
Complete race information is available at www.gamagori.world-triathlon2005.com. Start lists, results and online streaming are available at www.triathlon.org.
Following the world championships, many of the U.S. U23 and elite athletes will go on to the ITU World Cup in Beijing, China on Sept. 17. This will be their first glimpse of what things might be like at the 2008 Olympic Games, which will be held in Beijing.
