Australia’s Greg Bennett and Sweden’s Lisa Norden took $60,000 wins Sunday at the Olympic distance Toyota US Open Triathlon in Dallas.
Bennett used a race best 55:49 bike and 30:29 run to fend off a tough challenge from early leader American Andy Potts and take a 47-second margin of victory Sunday. Bennett finished in 1:46:52.
Potts, the 2007 Ironman 70.3 World Champion, passed Stuart Hayes of Great Britain with a second-best 30:53 run to take home the $25,000 second prize. Hayes, who won the Chicago Life Time Fitness series triathlon, took home $15,000 for his third place finish 30 seconds back of Potts.
Bennett’s win also earned him a $60,000 bonus for winning the third annual Life Time Fitness Series Championship comprised of races in Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas. Last year, Bennett ran the table by winning all five events and took home over $500,000 in series wins and bonus money.
With his win, Bennett took his third straight Life Time Fitness series championship.
Norden, who won the 2007 International Triathlon Union Under 23 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, took her first ITU World Cup gold this season and finished 18th at the 2008 Olympic Women’s triathlon in Beijing, overcame a 63-second deficit out of the swim to World Championship silver medalist and 11th place Olympic finisher Sarah Haskins of the United States. Norden’s race-best 1:00:21 bike and race-best 34:28 run propelled the young Swedish star to hit the tape in 1:57:30 with a 1 minute 10 second margin of victory over Haskins, last year’s Lifetime US Open Dallas champion.
Nicola Spirig of Switzerland, who finished 6th at the Beijing Olympics, finished third in 1:59:31.
Becky Lavelle of Los Gatos, California, finished 6th, fast enough to sew up her Life Time Fitness series championship title and a $60,000 series winner’s bonus after a 3rd in the series opener in Minneapolis, 2nd at New York, and firsts at Chicago and Los Angeles.
Toyota US Open Triathlon Championship
Dallas, Texas
October 5, 2008
S 1.5k/ B 40k/ R 10k
Results
1. Greg Bennett (AUS) 1:46:52
2. Andy Potts (USA) 1:47:29
3. Stuart Hayes (GBR) 1:47:59
4. Michael Raelert (GER) 1:48:15
5. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:48:53
6. Brent McMahon (CAN) 1:49:03
7. Timothy O'Donnell (USA) 1:49:36
8. Paul Matthews (AUS) 1:50:04
9. Reinaldo Colucci (BRA) 1:51:11
10. Simon Thompson (AUS) 1:53:05
Top 10 women
1. Lisa Norden (SWE) 1:57:30
2. Sarah Haskins (USA) 1:58:40
3. Nicola Spirig (SWI) 1:59:31
4. Sarah Groff (USA) 1:59:49
5. Laura Bennett (USA) 2:00:01
6. Becky Lavelle (USA) 2:00:23
7. Julie Dibens (GBR) 2:00:31
8. Samantha Warriner (NZL) 2:01:18
9. Jasmine Oeinck (USA) 2:01:31
10. Jodie Swallow (GBR) 2:02:06
