ITU Triathlon – Sydney – Race Day

The first stop of the ITU triathlon world championship series in Sydney Australia was an overall success for the American men and women. American triathletes Matthew Chrabot and Hunter Kemper turned in strong efforts on the bike, and both led the race on the run at one point. Kemper had difficulty maintaining his blistering first two kilometer pace coming out of the bike to run transition. Matt Chrabot rolled into T2 just a few seconds back from the leaders in third place and quickly surged to the front on the run and led for the first 5 km. unfortunately, Chrabot could not hold off the surging pack, but still finished in ninth place overall just in front of teammate Hunter Kemper. First time ITU WCS participant American Chris Foster turned in a outstanding performance finishing 14th overall. impressive considering he was 90 seconds down after the swim. Foster managed the best bike split of the day even after crashing briefly coming into the bike to run transition with the eventual winner Bevan Doherty. Ethan Brown dropped out due to unfortunate bike accident. Jarrod Shoemaker suffered a flat tire well away from the neutral support area and also dropped out.

Sarah Haskins demonstrated fine early-season form with a strong eighth place finish for the women. She continues to show the form from last season and made her a top contender on the ITU triathlon race circuit. Sarah Groff put in strong showing despite continuing to battle the effects of a crash in training.

Sydney Australia was a great location to host the first stop of the 2010 Dextro Energy ITU triathlon series. The race course covered some of the similar grounds as the 2000 Olympic triathlon. The swim portion was held under the shadow of the Sydney Opera House with views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.