Team USA Set for Early Olympic Preview in London

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – With the 2012 London Olympic Games just two years away, a dozen of the United States’ top triathletes will get an early preview of the Olympic course this weekend at stop No. 5 of the 2010 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series at London’s Hyde Park.

The seven-race WCS is a key proving ground for the top American triathletes hoping for a slot on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team. In addition to racing for WCS points, athletes will also be looking to score points toward securing a spot for their country at the 2012 Olympic Games.

The women kick off the weekend at 8 a.m. EDT Saturday, followed by the men at 11 a.m. EDT Sunday. A live webcast of both races will be available from ITU at triathlonlive.tv, and NBC Universal Sports will air the races on delay. Click here for more on the event from ITU.

Sarah Haskins (Colorado Springs, Colo.) should be well rested and primed for a run at the podium in Saturday’s women’s race. She has posted top-10 finishes in all three WCS starts in 2010 and is ninth overall and the top-rated American in the WCS series rankings. Laura Bennett (Boulder, Colo.) and Sarah Groff (Hanover, N.H.) are fresh off top-10 finishes last weekend in Hamburg and rank 18th and 21st, respectively, in the series rankings. Bennett was seventh in Hamburg, while Groff took eighth.

Rounding out the women’s field for the U.S. are Jillian Petersen (St. Louis, Mo.), Jenna Shoemaker (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Alicia Kaye (Maynard, Mass.). Petersen is 27th in the WCS series rankings, while Shoemaker finished 23rd in Hamburg last weekend. Click here for the full women’s start list.   

Jarrod Shoemaker (Maynard, Mass.) was seventh in Hamburg last weekend for a third-straight top-10 finish on the WCS circuit. He is the top-ranked American men’s athlete and is ninth overall in the WCS series rankings. Matt Chrabot (Colorado Springs, Colo.) joins Shoemaker in the top 15 of the men’s rankings and is coming off a fifth-place finish in Paris last weekend at a French Grand Prix sprint event.

Additionally, Manuel Huerta (Miami, Fla.) will look to build on his breakthrough 13th-place finish at Hamburg in just his second career WCS start. Chris Foster (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.) and Ben Collins (Seattle, Wash.) also will be in action for the Americans. Click here for a full men’s start list.

In addition to the elite races, a quartet of American paratriathletes will be in action Saturday in London. Megan Fisher (TRI-5, Missoula, Mont.) and J.P. Theberge (TRI-5, Carlsbad, Calif.) are coming off victories at last weekend’s USA Paratriathlon National Championship, while Matt Perkins (TRI-2, Boise, Idaho) was a runner up in New York. Trish Downing (TRI-1, Denver, Colo.) is also slated to be in action.

About USA Triathlon
USA Triathlon is proud to serve as the National Governing Body for triathlon – one of the fastest growing sports in the world – as well as duathlon, aquathlon and winter triathlon in the United States. USAT sanctions 3,100 races and connects with more than 133,000 members each year, making it the largest multisport organization in the world. In addition to its work with athletes, coaches, and race directors on the grassroots level, USAT provides leadership and support to elite athletes competing at international events, including World Championships, Pan American Games and the Summer Olympic Games.