Saturday’s San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island Will Host 80-plus Elites
USA Triathlon
July 5, 2011 (Colorado Springs, CO) – More than 80 top international triathletes will toe the starting line Saturday at the third installment of the 2011 USA Triathlon Elite Race Series, the San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island.
Over 30 Americans are scheduled to compete in the Olympic-distance event, which consists of a 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike and 10-kilometer run. The event also serves as an International Triathlon Union Pan American Cup.
Kaitlin Shiver (Satellite Beach, Fla.) finished second last time out in Monroe, Wash., and is currently tied for third in the women’s series rankings. She will be joined in the field by Lauren Goss (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.), who has finished eighth and 10th, respectively, in the first two events and USA Triathlon Project 2012 program member Jenna Parker (Los Angeles, Calif.), who will make her 2011 draft-legal debut. Additionally, 2008 U.S. Olympian Julie Ertel (Irvine, Calif.) is schedule to compete after placing sixth in the event last year. Click here for a complete women’s start list.
USA Triathlon Project 2012 athletes Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.) and Manuel Huerta (Miami, Fla.) headline the men’s start list for the U.S. Collington was 16th in the series opener in Clermont, Fla., while Huerta took 13th and was the top American man at last month’s ITU World Championship Series stop in Kitzbühel, Austria. Ethan Brown (Lowell, Mass.) was the winner of the recent Coteau du Lac ITU Pan American Cup.
The men’s field also features a number of Northern California elites, including Andrew Bauer (Oakland, Calif.), Eric Clarkson (Santa Cruz, Calif.), Chris Coble (Fremont, Calif.), John Dahlz (South San Francisco, Calif.), Kenneth Rakestraw (Berkeley, Calif.), Craig Robinson (Palo Alto, Calif.), Erich Wegscheider (San Jose, Calif.) and Tommy Zaferes (Soquel, Calif.) Click here for a complete men’s start list.
A $30,000 prize purse will be on the line for the elites with $3,750 going to the top male and female finisher. Hunter Kemper (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and France’s Greg Rouault share the men’s series lead, as do Helen Jenkins of Great Britain and Canada’s Chantall Widney on the women’s side, through two events.
The USA Triathlon Elite Race Series is a domestic, five-event series that delivers an opportunity for the nation’s top Olympic-distance triathletes to compete for $275,000 in prize money and a series title – all while honing the draft-legal racing skills necessary to challenge for the podium at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The five events that comprise the series will be held in Clermont, Fla. (March 5), Monroe, Wash. (June 25), San Francisco, Calif. (July 9), Buffalo, N.Y. (Sept. 24) and Myrtle Beach, S.C. (Oct. 8).
