For immediate release: Just after lunch on Saturday, when the beach was crowed, everything stopped on this beautiful hot day for the start of the 3rd Praia da Vitória ITU International Triathlon. In the women's event, Vanessa Fernandes (POR), Maria Areosa (POR) and Zurine Rodriguez (ESP) exited the water together following the 1.5km swim. Vanessa Fernandes had the fastest transition and exited first, followed shortly by the rest of the field - everyone was through in about 30 seconds.

During the cycling segment the chase pack caught Vanessa Fernandes and continued together for two laps when Maria Areosa lost her position in the group, and one lap later Zurine Rodriguez ESP could not hold onto the the group and dropped back.

The run segment was lead entirely by Portugal's Rita Cabrita followed by Samantha MacGlone of Canada, with Natalia Rana of Spain on her heels. The only change that occured in this segment was Maria Areosa passed Zurine Rodriguez.

In the men's event, the entire field stayed together until the first buoy. At this point Portuguese teammates, Duarte Marques and Paulo Antunes took over the segment by a few seconds.

Duarte Marques the first one out of transition onto the run, with Bruno Pais of Portugal close behind. .

In the cycling segment six athletes quichly formed the lead group. Austria's Stefan Perg, wo eventually won the race, that got out of the water in 8th position, but after a few laps bridged the gap to the leaders.

Local Azorean spectators that lined the course were thrilled with the performance of the Portuguese athletes and cheered them on enthusiastically.

In the run, Bruno Pais lead the first lap with Stefan Perg and South Africa's Lieuwe Boonstra, but after the third lap Bruno Pais couldn't stay the pace, and fell back. They stayed in this position until the finish.

The Mayor of Praia da Vitória was on hand to help celebrated the Portuguese victory by Rita Cabrita and the podium finish of Bruno Pais.

Sandra Turpin, Press Office