Africa Triathlon

Triathlon World Cup action moves to Hamburg, Germany for the 9th round of the ITU Triathlon World Cup Series where athletes from 27 countries around the world are arriving for the weekend that is jammed-packed with multi-sport action.

Full start lists and event details may be found on the Hamburg event page. Live coverage of the elite mens race is at 1.15 local time on Sunday August 7th. To launch live coverage click on the Hamburg link in the live webcast schedule in the middle of the homepage OR on go to the Hamgurg event page and click on the live coverage button on the botton of th eleft hand panel. Germany has fielded one of the largest teams ever for the Womens event that takes place on Saturday 6 August and the mens event on Sunday, 7th August.  2004 World Cup Overall Champion Anja Dittmer leads the German womens team, which also includes Joelle Franzmann (3rd at the 2005 Mazatlan World Cup) and Christiane Pilz, who is making her first appearance since her accident a year ago that prevented her from competing in the Athens Olympic Games.  The German mens team is filled with World Cup and World Championship podium finishers such as Andreas Raelert, Daniel Unger, Maik Petzold and Jan Frodeno. Spain also has a powerful team on the start list with Jose Merchan leading the mens team along with Eneko Llanos.  The womens side features past World Cup podium finishers Ainhoa Murua and Ana Burgos. Denmarks sole representative is Rasmus Henning, the defending Hamburg World Cup Champion Henning is just coming off a string of injuries that have kept him out of World Cup competition, but is strong enough to hold off all challengers. Others to watch out for are: Australia has a strong team in Hamburg including Brad Kahlefeldt, who was 5th at last weekends event in Salford, Peter Robertson, the 2001 and 2003 Triathlon World Champion for the men and Maxine Seear, Pip Taylor and Felicity Abrams for the women. New Zealand is represented by Samantha Warriner, who won the Ishigaki World Cup earlier this year and was 2nd last weekend in Salford, along with Bevan Docherty on the mens side, the current Triathlon World Champion. Switzerlands Olympic bronze medalist, Sven Riederer and Reto Hug, a past World Cup winner lead the mens side and Magali di Marco Messmer, the Olympic Games bronze medalist, and Nicola Spirig, who holds multi-sport World Championship titles are starting in the womens World Cup. For the USA, Sheila Taormina, the reigning World Champion, and Joanna Zeiger, who was 3rd at the recent Edmonton World Cup are on the womens start list and brothers Seth and Logan Wealing and Mark Fretta are on the mens start list. The ITU primes, a popular addition to this years mens and womens World Cup events will be offered for the 1st around the turn on the first lap of the swim, the 1st through lap 2 of the bike and the first through the 7th lap of 8 on the bike.  Both the swim and bike prime lines will be positioned directly in front of the stadium spectators to increase the intensity and interest of the event. Live coverage from Hamburg on www.triathlon.org will start on Saturday at 2:50 pm local time with the start of the womens event and continuing on Sunday at 1:45 pm with the mens event.  Live coverage includes a top 10 leader-board, a live photo gallery of the action, text updates, complete results with splits and live audio featuring the voice of triathlon, Jackie Gallagher. Television will be broadcast live throughout Germany of both the mens and womens event and ITUtv will produce a 52 minute television show that will be seen in over 70 countries worldwide with a potential household reach of over 1 billion.  The action in Hamburg also includes the popular Holsten Cityman Triathlon that has attracted move than 6,000 competitors for the 2 days of action.  In all, more than 250,000 spectators are expected to line the event for this popular event on the ITU calendar. Triathlon.org will also host a first class photo gallery by spomedis photographers, Frank Weschel and Silke Insel of Germany.  High resolution photos will be available immediately after the event by contacting ituhdq@triathlon.org Click here for full start lists and race details.