It was déjà vu time in St. Petersburg, Florida this morning, with last year's St. Anthony's Triathlon champions successfully defending their titles. Czech Pro Filip Ospaly used a very fast 31:07 run to win the men's race nine seconds ahead of Ben Collins and American Sarah Haskins did so in an even more dominating fashion this time around.
The men
Josh Amberger led the men out of the water and the Aussie had managed an 8 second advantage over Cameron Dye and even more on the other competitors.
Dye though had a quicker transition and the two of them took off on their bikes virtually together recording some of the fastest bike splits of the day. Ben Collins though managed to go even faster than Amberger and Dye and clocked a race best 53:09 time. These three competitors reached the bike-run transition together with a nice advantage over the pursuers, but some fast runners were getting ready for the chase. Among them were defending champion Filip Ospaly and Timothy O'Donnell who had already won 70.3 San Juan and 70.3 Galveston this year.
But it was Ospaly who had the fastest legs today and he finished his day with a 31:07 run, catching all three long time leaders. Collins though hung tough to finish second, while O'Donnell managed to move past Amberger and Dye to take third place.
The women
As expected Sara McLarty was first out of the water in 19:10, but defending champion Sara Haskins was only a couple steps behind her. The two of them though had a nice gap on the other competitors.
Haskins pulled away from McLarty on the bike with a very solid 1:00:22 bike split, but the fastest split of day belonged to Alicia Kaye who clocked a speedy 58:44. That time was in fact 4 seconds faster than Angela Naeth who is well know for her bike prowess, but Naeth had lost more than 4 minutes to Haskins in the swim and typically does not dabble in that distance. Kaye on the other hand had started the bike 1:27 behind Haskins and managed to reel in the race leader and the two of them reached T2 together.
But Kaye could not match the running speed of the defending champion, and Haskins stormed to another fine win in 1:56:55. For Haskins this now was already her 4th St. Anthony's title. Kaye with a solid effort all day finished in second place and Brit Jodie Stimpson rounded out the podium. Kelly Williamson's race best run propelled her to fifth place right behind Annabel Luxford.
St. Anthony's Triathlon
St. Petersburg, FL / April 29, 2012
1.5k swim / 40k bike / 10k run
Top men
1. Filip Ospaly (CZE) 1:45:50
2. Ben Collins (USA) 1:45:59
3. Timothy O'Donnell (USA)1:46:04
4. Joshua Amberger (AUS) 1:46:20
5. Cameron Dye (USA) 1:47:01
6. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 1:47:16
7. Stuart Hayes (GBR) 1:47:22
8. Kaleb Vanort (USA) 1:47:30
9. Paul Matthews (AUS) 1:47:43
10. Chris Foster (USA) 1:47:47
Top women
1. Sarah Haskins (USA) 1:56:55
2. Alicia Kaye (USA) 1:59:16
3. Jodie Stimpson (GBR) 1:59:37
4. Annabel Luxford (GBR) 2:00:07
5. Kelly Williamson (USA) 2:00:13
6. Angela Naeth (CAN) 2:00:19
7. Jillian Petersen (USA) 2:00:48
8. Nikki Butterfield (AUS) 2:01:35
9. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) 2:02:02
10. Radka Vodickova (CZE) 2:02:16
