For immediate release - Lausanne, Switzerland: Threatening storms, and a false start caused by one athlete jumping the gun, enhanced the drama at the start of the men's Lausanne ITU World Cup Triathlon. Once underway, the 2-lap, 1.5km swim was led by Richard Stannard of Britain, with Daniel Unger of Germany, and Kostas Dovanas of Greece clinging to his toes.

Shortly after the finish of the swim, the storm that had been threatening all day arrived with a vengeance, having a huge impact of the 6-lap, 40km bike course. After two laps on the bike, Italian brothers, Andrea and Emilio D'Aquino led the charge of the lead pack of about 50 athletes. Notables in that group were New Zealand's Bevan Docherty, Rasmus Henning of Denmark and Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic. The chase pack was about 10 seconds back, led by Peter Hobor of Hungary

At the start of the 4th lap, the entire field became one gigantic group of almost 70 athletes. The storm passed, the sun came out and the thousands of spectators who had run for cover returned to line the bike course. The speed of the peleton going past the stadium was beyond thrilling, as the sport took another giant step forward - exemplified by the talent of the athletes.

The 2002 Lausanne ITU World Cup will be known as the year of the storms, as the rain returned just as the bike section finished. But, there was another kind of storm that blew through the transition area - the one caused by 70 athletes exiting the cycle and starting the run at one time. It was literally a blur of bodies, with Swiss teammates Didier Bocard and Sven Riederer at the front along with Axel Zeebroech from Belgium and Bevan Docherty of New Zealand. The lead continued to change, and at this point it would have taken a genius to predict the outcome.

Through the first two laps of the 4 lap, 10km run, local Lausanne hero Didier Bocard moved bravely to the front and put a 100 metre lead on the chase pack - about 50 runners attempting to chase him down.

On the 3rd lap, Greg Bennett of Australia emerged from the pack and overtook Bocard, as did Andrew Johns of Britain and Filip Ospaly. The huge chase pack, although thinning somewhat was still in the hunt for a step on the podium.

As they moved onto the last lap of the run, Greg Bennett continued to set a seriously fast pace at the front, with Andrew Johns and Filip Ospaly desperately trying to hang on to him. Daniel Brocard had slipped back to 4th and was running with Daniel Unger of Germany, Rasmus Henning, Enecko Llanos of Spain, and Shane Reed and Kris Gemmell of New Zealand. Torrential rain returned during the run but it did not deter the enthusiasm of the spectators, for this event was far from over and no one was willing to predict the winner.

In a spectacular finish, Filip Ospaly out-sprinted Greg Bennett to take his first World Title with Andrew Johns hanging on for 3rd. The rest of the top 10 finishers were in order: 4th Daniel Unger, 5th Eneko Llanos, 6th Rasmus Henning, 7th Stefan Poulat of France, 8th Shane Reed, 9th Tim Don for Britain, 10. Emilio D'Quino of Italy. Following them, the rest of the field poured through the finish, as the heavens opened up again. Despite the stormy conditions, nothing could dampen the celebration that took place following this spectacular finish to a dramatic event.

For complete results, video and photos see www.triathlon.org. For further information please contact ITU Headquarters at: ituhdq@triathlon.org or Tel: 1.604.926.7250

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