89 Days to go ...
27 May 2004
ITU News Update: 27 May 3004

Welcome to Tongyeong ITU World Cup: Kyung-Sun Yu (photo-right), President of the Korean Triathlon Federation writes...Dear Triathlete Friends, Since the inaugural Tongyeong Triathlon 2000, followed by the successful domestic & international events in 2001 and 2002, Tongyeong Triathlon has become one of the world's major Triathlon events. In 2003 triathletes voted Tongyeong World Cup one of the top 3 triathlon events in the world. With exotic natural beauty, miles of pristine coastline, and over 180 islands; Tongyeong city has established itself as the triathlon Mecca. Tongyeong city's continued success in organizing major triathlon events ensures that you will receive the best support available. First-class hotel, training facility, light traffic roads and friendly Tongyeong citizens will provide the conditions for well organized, exciting, and safe race. We will make this event an unforgettable success not only for the participants but also their friends and family. On behalf of the Korean triathlon family, I would like to have the opportunity to warmly welcome you all to 2004 Tongyeong World Cup.
An Yong Ha Se Yo! Ray Hahn (photo-right), Executive Assistant, Korean Triathlon Federation writes:
Dear athletes, Greetings from the land of the "Morning Calm". Hope all are well with you.

TongYeong World Cup is just 2 weeks away. I'm sure all of you may well know that it's on JUNE 12, Saturday.

As I have mentioned in Madeira, Tongyeong will indeed set a new trend in triathlon history. We will very much try not to SPOIL you, but we can't promise that since Korea Triathlon Federation as well as LOC's biggest concern is how to provide the best facility and environment for the athletes.
We have arranged the following pleasant surprises for Tongyeong World Cup:

FOR PROMOTION:
1. Cycling Parade on June 10, Thursday 15:00 -17:00
WHO will participate?Athletes, Delegates, VIPs, LOC officials, Tongyeong City officials, Family members & Friends of athlete's
WHERE to? Hotel -> Visit Tongyeong Middle School: Meet your fans -> Tonyeong City Hall: Meet the Mayor -> Hotel
THOSE who don't have a bicycle? For those Delegates, VIPs, Family members & Friends of athlete's who does not have a bike, LOC will have rental bicycles ready free of charge. Please sign up by email.
TRAFFIC? The traffic will be controlled by the police. Even someone like me who is more of a spectator rather than a participant will feel safe!
HOW long is the trip? The round trip itself is less than an hour in a moderate speed but since we are making two stops we give the whole parade 2 hours.

2. LOC has invited one man and woman athlete to arrive a few extra days early for promotion purpose.
WHAT will they do? Visit schools, Korea Navy Academy, Orphanage, Media interviews, Autograph sessions, sight seeing.
Are you interested? If so please email to ITU Loreen or Me ASAP.

3. Elite women race will be live broadcasted nation wide. Last year Elite men was live broadcasted, so this year as rotation it's Elite Women. For us in Korea TV broadcast on a Saturday 2pm- 4pm is prime time since we don't get off work until noon as well as schools in Korea. That is why we need to fill 50 women entry. Last year we were short on women. Ladies, help us out! We are providing air travel subsidy for women athletes. Please email to Loreen at ITU or me at: rayhahn@asiantriathlon.com ASAP for time is running out.4. Complimentary accommodations of 3 nights. Complimentary accommodations of 3 nights for both Men and Women top 15 athletes of Tongyeong start list.

BUT the athletes who has received air ticket subsidy will be EXCLUDED!

FOR ATHLETES:
1. For those athletes who does not plan to carry their bike rollers, we will have 6 rollers at the official hotel.
2. Korea is famous for amazing broad band internet access. At the hotel we will have them for you to enjoy.
3. Traffic will be controlled for cycling training from 3pm-4pm.
4. Closing party will be held at the hotel night club. Make sure you bring your clubbing wardrobe.
5. Tongyeong Entry athletes will receive 25 % discount on the domestic flight on Asiana airline (airline code: OZ).

You can receive this benefit by booking your seat from the Tongyeong World Cup Official travel agency HODO Tour. Please email to Ms. Cindy Shin:cindy507@82ok.com or Ms. Annie Choi: joomi05@82ok.com (HODO

Tour will arrange all the accommodation, Domestic Transportation bookings.)

There are a few more pleasant surprises but we will leave them for you to find out when you get here! I feel as if I'm the Santa Claus. Well, Ho Ho Ho for now, See you soon in Tongyeong.

Geel 2004 Duathlon ITU Triathlon World Championships Update

The ITU Team of Clive Faine, head of the ITU Duathlon Committee, Brian Hinton, ITU Executive Board, Graeme Kempson, Technical Delegate, Leone Hinton, ITU Protocol, Ed Rice and Brian Mahoney, ITUtv and ITU Media, have arrived in Geel and report that plans are well underway for the May 30th, 2004 ITU Duathlon World Championships.

The city of Geel, located in the heart of Europe, has hosted a Duathlon event since 2001. Duathlon Champion Benny Vansteelant, reigning Duathlon World Champion, hails from Belgium and has previously won on the Geel course three times. Edwige Pitel (FRA), Erika Csomor (HUN) and Vicky Pincombe (GBR) are all previous winners of the women's event.

The course in Belgium is expected to be lined with spectators as Belgium is one of the leading countries in Duathlon. In the 2003 Affoltern Duathlon World Championships Belgium earned 3 gold medals: Benny Vansteelant won the elite men's event; Joeri Vansteelant the U23 and Peter Croes the junior category.

The ITU World Duathlon Series consists of 5 events in 2004 and Geel will host the premier event of the season. Live coverage from Geel will be available on www.triathlon.org on race day.

Click here for ITUtv live coverage of the event as well as start lists and event details

ITU DUATHLON COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER - MAY/JUNE 2004
Clive Faine (photos-right), Chair of the ITU Duathlon Committee writes: Welcome to the early Summer edition of the ITU Duathlon Committee Newsletter, particularly so to those of you competing in the upcoming ITU World Duathlon Championships in Geel, Belgium - it promises to be a tremendous event with over 1000 elite and age groups athletes entered. In the words of our friends in the Belgian Federation and the Geel organising committee led by Jan Daems "Duathlon is coming home" on behalf of ITU I wish you an enjoyable and above all a safe event.

As you will remember from the December 2003 Newsletter we intended to keep the Duathlon World updated on the work of the committee, but I hope you will forgive me in this Newsletter in focusing on the exciting plans for the 04 World Series and the programme for World Championship Events for the next two years.

The next meeting of the Committee will take place in Geel; so more news will come in the Autumn Newsletter on the Committees' activities.
The award presentation for the 2003 ITU World Series will take place in Geel on the 31 May 04. Over 50 elite men and 40 elite women competed in the series with the Top-3 men's rankings going to Javier Garcia (Spain), Benny Vansteelant (Belgium) and Anthony Leduey (France) closely followed by Mike Trees (Great Britain), Benito De Torres (Spain) and Francois Lhuissier (France). The top 3 ranked women were Vicky Pincombe (Great Britain), Edwige Pitel (France) and Fiona Docherty (New Zealand), followed by Ariana Morosin (Italy), Annie Emmerson ( Gt. Britain) and Andrey Cleau (France). A number of those athletes will be missing from the start line in Geel but most will be competing and challenging for top honours.


The 2004 ITU World Cup Series will be contested over 5 events, the best 4 results to count. The confirmed events are:

  • Geel Belgium - 30-31st May - ITU World Duathlon Championships
  • Alpharetta Georgia USA - 8th August - ITU Alpharetta World Series Duathlon
  • Swansea Wales - 25-26th September - ITU Swansea World Series Duathlon-ETU European Championships
  • Cincinnati Ohio USA - 26th September- ITU Cincinnati World Series Duathlon
  • Varallo Italy - 17th October -ITU Varallo World Series Duathlon

Special mention of the Varallo, Italy event in particular for non-European elite athletes is a special incentive package of travel and accommodation for a selected number of elite athletes. Anybody interested and it is on a first, come first served basis should contact the writer personally over the Geel weekend (leave a message with the event organiser or contact cfaine@abbeygate-dev.co.uk).

ITU Official Apparel Supplier


World Cup Series T-shirts available here

Even more exciting is the news that ITU have as well as trophies awarded a prize fund of a total of $10,000 to the top three male and female athletes in this years series (division to be decided).

ITU World Long Distance Duathlon Championships 2004 - 20k-120k-10k, will take place in Frederica Denmark on the 1st August.

Following on from celebrating the successful 10th anniversary of the series in 2003, the US based Dannon Duathlon Championship has announced an 8-round series for 2004, kicking off with a new event in Key Biscayne Florida on May 2nd. 2 rounds at Alpharetta and Mason Ohio will be part of the ITU World Series.

Thanks to the work of Bill Burke and his team at Premier Event Management Duathlon in the US goes from strength to strength with Bill's team widening its activities further in 2004 organising many Triathlon events to compliment its coverage of the World multi-sport family.

The Power Man series focusing on long distance duathlon continues in '04 with a 10-round series world wide - www.powerman.org

Looking forward to 2005 I am pleased to announce the award of the ITU World Duathlon Championships (subject to formal agreements being signed) to Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia on 24 & 25 September 2005, and the ETU Duathlon Championships have previously been awarded to Vaerlose, Denmark on the 3 & 4 September 2005, so September next year will be an exciting month for the Duathlon world.

Negotiations are under way with our friends in Italy for the Long Distance Duathlon World Championships to be held in late May or June further info with the next Newsletter.

For 2006 the ITU World Duathlon Championship has (subject to formal agreement being signed) been awarded to Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, Canada on the 6 August 06.

Also underway are negotiations with many new countries and event organisers for an expanded 2005 ITU World Series, again further information with the next Newsletter. Look out for events in Canada and South Africa joining the series.

Congratulations to our friends in Venezuela for hosting the PanAmerican Duathlon Championships. Information is available on www.triathlon.org. More regional and national championships for Duathlon are now taking place throughout the world, which bodes well for the future of our sport.

I hope you have found this newsletter of interest and will communicate your views and express your opinions for the benefit of the sport to us at ITU. Best wishes for a healthy and successful 2004.
Clive Faine, Chair ITU Duathlon Committee
Asian Youth Triathlon Camp: Tom Carrasco, President of the Philippines Triathlon Federation writes: We are pleased to inform you the holding of the Asian Youth Triathlon Camp 2004 from 14 ~20 June 2004 at the Subic Bay Freeport, Luzon, Philippines. This training camp which is open to junior triathletes ages 14 to 19 from ASTC-member countries, will be facilitated by renowned triathlon coach, Rob Pickard.
On behalf of the Asian Triathlon Confederation and the Triathlon Association of the Philippines, we are pleased to invite your triathlon federation/association to send your junior athletes and coach to this training camp. Each ASTC-member country is entitled to free hotel accommodation for 8 days and 7 nights, meals, and Manila-Subic transfers for 2 junior male and 2 junior female triathletes and 1 coach. Please confirm your participation by emailing the names and designations of your delegation to carrtom@ydestiny.net and tricamp@triathlon.org.ph. More details and information about this important triathlon event will be sent to you shortly. See you at Subic!
Event Organisers and Coaches Training in Syria: Claude Meyer (ITU Solidarity Training Coach) writes: Olympic Solidarity, ITU and the Syrian Triathlon Federation recently joined forces to stage a very interesting seminar for coaches and event organisers. 62 attended the seminar to learn the skills and abilities required to coach athletes and organise events on ITU standards.

Those in attendance were thirsty for knowledge about Triathlon. We were also fortunate to have some good coaches present from others federation, some athletes and teachers of physical education at school and people from marketing agencies - the latter being very important for the event organisers. Everyone worked in a very friendly and collaborative way.

The National Federation is working very well to develop the sport in Syria with very strong leadership and lots of collaboration with the Syrian Olympic Committee and the government.

Syria has many sports centers and there are many possibilities for training.

The Syrian Triathlon Federation could be the model for all of the Arabic countries for development of the triathlon and other multi-sports.

The Syrian Triathlon Federation would like to organize an International race and continue to organize Olympic Solidarity camps in the near future.


Group photos: Syrian Coaches and Event Organisers Seminar


Classroom Session
Click photos for full-size

ITU Long Distance Tour 2004 and Ranking System. Chris Kitchen, Chair ITU Long Distance Events Commission writes: ITU is pleased to announce the ultimate challenge for 2004, a series of Long Distance Triathlon events for elite and age-group athletes. The first event in the series, the Barcis Triathlon based in the beautiful Italian countryside an hour or so north of Venice is fast approaching. Athletes who want to be a part of the series are encouraged to enter as soon as possible.

The 2004 events are to be:

Valcellina swim start

Valcellina bike
Athlete ranking will be based upon the best three results and one of these has to be at the ITU World Championships in Sater Sweden. ITU is dedicated to the development of Long Distance Triathlon as an integral part of the sports of Triathlon and Duathlon. The Tour has initially been pioneered in Europe but plans are in place to expand the series with events right around the world for a truly World Ranking Series in 2005.

See the event Websites on the links above or the ITU website for details of how to apply for this years seriesChris Kitchen
Chris Kitchen, International Triathlon Union, Long Distance Commission
ETU News Update: 24 May 2004: Official information from the European Triathlon Union: Gergely Markus, Secretary General of ETU writes:

PREPARATIONS FOR THE GREAT TRIATHLON ARE IN FULL SWING AT MONTALTO DI CASTRO
Montalto di Castro is a hive of activity for the preparations of the Youth European Triathlon Championships which will take place on the 5th and 6th June 2004. The important sporting event, organized by Attilio Boni together with the Polisportiva Montalto and the Municipality of the Latium resort, will be hosting about 250 young triathletes from all over Europe. No less than 25 nations have been invited to take part in this sporting event, which will award the young European champions of this triple discipline.
As is prescribed by the rules every nation can take part with one male and one female team, each made up of three athletes, who will compete in a relay race; moreover every nation can enrol another team, male or female, which adds up to twelve of all the athletes. The list of the participants is updated hourly, with Spain, Israel, Denmark, Hungary, Switzerland, Greece, Lithuania, and Russia, who have already confirmed their participation.

The registration deadline is on the 20th May. The courses chosen by the technical committee headed by Attilio Boni, with the supervision of the European Federation, are around Piazzale Tirrenia (close to Marina di Montalto) and includes the sea esplanade and the downtown of the sea resort.

The swim course will take place in the sea in front of Piazzale Tirrenia, which will be therefore the heart of the event as well as the place of a village of exhibiting firms and display stands. There will be also a VIP area, the press box and a podium at the finishing line. All these facilities will be set up by the commercial firm Man@gement.tri who will bring the famous SKY TV Italia to the European Championship: the latter will dedicate a TV program to triathlon and in particular to the sporting event in Montalto.

The two-day triathlon event will also include other important sporting competitions: the Trofeo Italia Giovanissimi is scheduled on the 6th June, and it offers this Trophy as a prize to the best classified societies by awarding a score to each young triathlete completing the race; the Triathlon Enduro, unique of its kind in Italy, reserved to the categories Youth/Junior (aged between 16 and 19): during this competition the young athletes will have to cover twice and without any interruption the 300m swim course, the 6,9 km cycle course and the 2km run course.

Also the athletes who have competed on the previous day, can take part in this contest.

The sporting event of Montalto di Castro includes also a seminar about “Youth, Triathlon and health” addressed to the coaches of all nations. The prestigious event will be starting with the Opening Ceremony at the Piazzale Tirrenia on the 4th June, with the participation of over 129 children coming from the schools of the province who will be carrying the flags of the participating nations as well as the decorations purposely prepared by them for the event.

For more information contact Mariangela Musolino, Press Officer at +39 339.3358038 speedmar@libero.it) Contact ETU , E mail: marge@mail.datanet.hu , Tel: +30 697 344 6551, Fax: +30 210 699 4545
www.etu-triathlon.org
Swail, Friman win Tempe ITU America's Continental Cup Triathlon
Adapted from story by BJ Hoeptner-Evans, USA Triathlon: With temperatures reaching up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, Doug Friman and Julie Swail won their first ITU victories of the season Sunday at the Tempe ITU Continental Cup triathlon in Arizona, USA.

Friman, who grew up in Arizona, and still trains there part time, took the lead during the fourth lap of the run and outran New Zealand's Matt Reed and Australia's Chris McCormack to win the men's race in 1 hour, 46 minutes, 57 seconds.

Reed was second in 1:47:30 and McCormack was third in 1:47:55.

"I looked at this as a hometown race," Friman said. "I wanted to do well for myself and for my team."

Friman, along with several other American contenders, will also be looking to earn the final spot on the U.S. Olympic triathlon team. The spot will be decided on June 13 at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

In the women's event Swail came out of the water behind Canada's Christine Jeffrey and American Kelly Handel The three rode together on the bike for several laps before Swail and Jeffrey dropped Handel. Swail had the fastest run of the day in 38:43 to hold on to the lead and win in 2:02:31. Handel battled back on the run to finish second in 2:04:11 and Jenny Marine surged on the run to finish third in 2:05:35.

Doug Friman


Julie Swail

Julie Swail, was excited by the results and said after the event; "One of my big goals for the season was to win an ITU race, I'm very happy with how I did, especially on the run."

Swail will also attempt to earn the final spot on the US Olympic team in Bellingham but would have to upset favourite Laura Reback and Susan Williams.

Men
1. Doug Friman (USA) 1:46:57;
2. Matt Reed (NZL) 1:47:30;
3. Chris McCormack (AUS) 1:47:55;
4. Mark Fretta (USA) 1:48:32;
5. Seth Wealing (USA.) 1:48:58;
6. Victor Plata (USA1:50:27;
7. Andy Kelsey (USA) 1:50:59;
8. Marcel Vifian (USA) 1:51:41;
9. Matthew Kowalski (USA) 1:52:18;
10. Brian Lavelle (USA) 1:52:59		 Women
1. Julie Swail (USA) 2:02:30;
2. Kelly Handel (USA) 2:04:11;
3. Jenny Marine (USA.) 2:05:35;
4. Christine Jeffrey (CAN) 2:06:56;
5. Rebecca Preston (AUS) 2:07:12;
6. Lauren Groves (CAN) 2:07:25;
7. Melissa Begin (USA) 2:08:50;
8. Jessi Stensland (USA) 2:10:17;
9. Ryan Layhee (USA) 2:10:19;
10. Sarah Haskins (USA) 2:12:14

What's New on www.triathlon.org:

- Lots of new innformation about Athens Olympic Games Triathlon - see Athens in Event Section

- New Athlete Profiles: Xavier Llobet (ESP), Giunia Chenevier (ITA), Beatrice Lanza (ITA) Andrea and Emilio D’Aquino (ITA) Alessandro De Gasperi (ITA) Giuseppe Ferrara (ITA) Pip Taylor (AUS), Ewa Dederko (POL)

- Athlete Profile Updates: Seth Wealing (USA), Sylvia Gemignani (ITA)
© www.triathlon.org 2004