Lot's
of snow, cold temperatures and sunshine with some
clouds - that's what is expect for the opening race
of the 2002 ITU Winter Triathlon Series next Sunday
in the Swiss resort of Wildhaus. The series will consist
of 5 races: Wildhaus (SUI), Stoos (SUI) on February
3rd, Jaca (ESP) on February 17th, the ITU Winter Triathlon
World Championships on February 20 to 24th in Brusson
(ITA) and the series finale on March 16th in Canmore
(CAN).
The
Wildhaus race will live up to the tradition of winter
triathlon in Switzerland. Besides being a classic
Swiss Winter Triathlon Cup the World Cup race (2000)
and the ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships (2001)
are legendary events. For Wildhaus the local organizing
crew around Bruno Selebam and Hans-Peter Schück
have designed the start, transition and finish area
in Oberdorf, the part of Wildhaus situated above the
valley. The race course starts with a 5 lap run (total
8 km) followed by a 5 lap MTB (14 km) and a final
4 lap (10 km) x-country ski leg.
A
top class field is announced in the women's race,
including the top 4 finishers from the Lenzerheide
World Chmpionhips: reigning world champion Sigrid
Lang (GER), Karin Möbes (SUI), Marianne Vlasveld
(NED) and Gabi Pauli (GER). Lang and Vlasveld prooved
strong performances while winning the swiss cup races
in Stoos and Scuol. Unfortunately, the 1999 and 2000
world champion was forced to drop out in Stoos with
a strain in the femoral and shoulder problems, since
Christmas day she is additionally suffering from a
whiplash after another car crashed into her from the
front while she was driving home from training. "I'm
still hoping to be on the tracks in Wildhaus",
Möbes said after Mondays training.
While
the 1997 and 1998 world champion Paolo Riva (ITA)
and the 2001 World Championship runner up, Martin
Lang (GER) have ended their career, World Champion
Zibi Szlufcik (Ger) and Bronze medaillist Christoph
Mauch (SUI) will begin their winter triathlon season
only mid January. Despite their absences, Wildhaus
will be a strong field, including the No 4 to 8th
place finishers from last years world championships:
Othmar Brügger (SUI), Marc Ruhe (LIE), Benjamin
Sonntag (GER), Thomas Schrenk (GER) and Iwan Schuwey
(SUI). Start times are on sunday at 12.30 am for women
and 12.50 am for men. Race time will be around 90
minutes.
A
fund rising event will be hald on Saturday afternoon
organized by Karin Möbes to support children's
projects in the third world - VIP's out of sport,
politics, economy and culture will compete with MTB's
on snow against the winter triathlon stars. Some of
the known VIP's are Barbara Blatter (2nd in the MTB
Sydney Olympics event), Andreas Clavadetscher, Race
Across America winner and Marcel Knaus, 3rd in 24
h Mountainbike worlds.
Story
Courtesy of Reinhard Standke (Swiss Triathlon Media
Officer)
