Africa Triathlon

Beijing, China: For immediate release: Six days after the 2005 Gamagori ITU Triathlon World Championships took place in Japan, most of the best triathletes in the world have gathered near the Ming Tombs north of Beijing for the OSIM Beijing ITU World Cup Triathlon.

The 2 lap - 1.5km swim, 6 lap – 40km cycle and 3 lap – 10km run will take place around the Shisanling Reservoir, located in the Changping District of Beijing which is famous as the location of the Great Wall of China.

It is fitting that both bronze medalists from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Magali diMarco-Messmer of Switzerland and Jan Rehula of the Czech Republic, are on the start list as ITU celebrates the 5th anniversary of Triathlon’s debut on the Olympic Programme. 

USA Teammates Sheila Taormina, the 2004 World Champion, and Susan William, the bronze medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games Triathlon, have both announced that the Beijing World Cup will be their last Triathlon as both will retire following Saturday’s competition.

Action on the women’s side will feature a rematch between the current World Cup leader Annabel Luxford of Australia and Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal.  Fernandes came up short last weekend at the World Championships as Luxford placed second behind country-mate Emma Snowsill.

In the men’s event the depth of the field makes it difficult to make a prediction, with most of the top men in the world on the start line including World #1 Hunter Kemper of the USA, World #3 Reto Hug of Switzerland, World #4 Tim Don of Great Britain and World #6 Matt Reed of the USA.
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The elite men kick off the action at 9:00am China time, 2.00am London, 21:00pm New York, 18:00pm Vancouver and 11:00am Sydney.  The elite women’s race will start at 12:30pm (China time).

The ITU website, www.triathlon.org will feature live coverage including results, splits, photos and text updates.