The Hy-Vee Triathlon is the triathlon's sport's biggest payday with $700,000 on the line
In any other year, pre-race speculation about the Hy-Vee Triathlon BG World Cup in West Des Moines would center on which international stars were likely to win the $200,000 top prize for men and women.
With ITU World Cup dominator Vanessa Fernandes taking the week off, a revived Emma Snowsill of Australia, the three-time ITU World Champion, is the women’s favorite (3-1). She will be challenged closely by newly crowed World Champ Helen Tucker (5-1), rising Aussie Emma Moffat (6-1), Great Britain's young prodigy Hollie Avil (7-1), other top Aussies Felicity Abram (8-1) and Erin Densham (10-1), with the U.S.’s defending champ Laura Bennett (9-1) right in the mix.
Among the men, 2004 ITU World champ and current ITU World Champ silver medalist Bevan Docherty of New Zealand is the odds-on favorite (4-1), followed closely by 2006 ITU World champion Tim Don of Great Britain (6-1), 2000 Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield of Canada (7-1)currently red-hot U.S. Olympian Matt Reed (8-1), Hy-Vee defending champion Rasmus Henning of Denmark (9-1), three-time ITU World Champ Peter Robertson of Australia(10-1) and 2007 undefeated Life Time Fitness series champ Greg Bennett of Australia (11-1).
US Olympic Trials dramas trump interest in who will get the big checks
But because this is an Olympic year, cash takes a back seat to the drama of the Olympics. This year the Hy-Vee Triathlon also serves as the third and final round of the US Olympic Triathlon qualifying.
Among the US women, only two are left in the hunt.
Sarah Haskins, 27, who just finished a breakthrouigh second in the ITU World Championship in Vancouver, and who scored second place finishes to Laura Bennett at the first round of the US Trials in Beijing last September and to Julie Swail Ertel in the second round of the US Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa this April, has the points edge. But young Sarah Groff, 26, can win the slot if she simply finishes first American woman at Hy-Vee.
To those who dismiss Groff’s chances, they should note that the Middlebury grad finished just nine seconds back of Haskins at Tuscaloosa and five places and two minutes 27 seconds behind Haskins at the Vancouver World Championships.
But the main event is the US men’s contest. There is just one slot left and four candidates including long shots Brian Fleischmann and Doug Friman.
The ultimate battle - Potts v. Kemper
But all eyes are on the two greatest US Olympic-style triathletes of this era – two-time Olympian, 2005 ITU World Number 1, six-time US elite champion Hunter Kemper and current Pan Am Games champion, two-time Escape From Alcatraz winner, 2006 ITU World number 3 and 2004 Olympian Andy Potts.
Thanks to some typical Olympic qualifying drama, long shot 25-year-old Jarrod Shoemaker stole the show from towering favorites Kemper and Potts at the Beijing World Cup, taking first American and the Olympic slot by 12 seconds over Kemper.
Then New Zealand-born, recent US citizen Matt Reed, 32, got diagnosed and subsequently threw off the limiting shackles of asthma and out-dueled heavy favorites Potts and Kemper at Tuscaloosa.
Reed then went on a tear, winning St. Anthony’s placing second at the ITU World Cup in Richards Bay South Africa, 10th at the ITU World Cup in Madrid, and took a clutch 5th place at ITU Worlds in Vancouver to ensure the US men would preserve three Olympic starting slots.
This leaves a previously unthinkable Texas Death Cage-style contest between the two men who seemed like sure bets for Beijing before it all started.
Now, healthy and coming off a repeat win at the challenging and prestigious Escape From Alcatraz (Kemper won in 2005, Reed in 2006), and including the momentum he acquired after taking the Pan Am Games, the US Elite and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship titles in 2007, Potts, 31, has to be the favorite.
Probably.
Kemper's troubles
Kemper, who suffered through a career-threatening sacroiliac injury that cost him most of 2007, made a swift recovery to finish 17th in the stifling heat at Hy-Vee –on almost no training. Then, impatiently pushing hard, he set fastest run by two minutes last July at a small Haul to the Great Wall race in Colorado – and got a setback. “I was so encouraged by my recovery I overdid it,” recalled Kemper. “Things weren’t too bad, but my sacroiliac joint started to hurt again and I lost that extra gear on the run.”
At Beijing, Kemper had Shoemaker in his sites with one lap to go on the run, but got beat by 12 seconds. “I wonder if I’ll ever find that top hear again,” said Kemper at the time. “I had a mediocre run and finished 15th.”
Kemper thereafter tried to tip toe on the knife edge between saving his leg and pushing hard for round two in Tuscaloosa. But in February, he was hit by a hernia in his lower right abdomen. Like Tiger Woods at the US Open, Kemper did not utter a word of excuse or explanation about the hernia as he and Potts futilely chased Reed. At the end, Potts beat Kemper to the finish line for second.
Since then, Kemper skipped further World Cup races and the World Championship in Vancouver to let his hernia heal and to shift his perspective.
“To make this Olympic team would mean so much,” he told Courtney Johnson in a recent Triathlete online article. “I think I took making the team for granted with Athens and Sydney. It’s been a struggle this go around, so it means a lot more.”
Coming into Hy-Vee, Kemper is relieved that the flood conditions abated enough to allow a swim and let the Olympic Trials event go as scheduled this weekend. Kemper has put off any hernia surgery until after the season, so he took a cortisone shot to alleviate the pain before heading to Des Moines.
Much like Sarah Haskins, who took a month off racing in May to prepare for ITU Worlds and arrived fresh and at the top of her game, Kemper says he is bringing his A game to West Des Moines.
“Put it this way,” he told Courtney Johnson, “if I don’t make the Olympic team, I can’t use my hernia as an excuse.”
Nonetheless, Kemper is optimistic with how he is feeling for this crucial race. "When I got a cortisone injection two weeks ago, it helped a lot," he said in a telephone interview this afternoon. "It didn't hurt much when I trained and I'm excited and ready to go. I think I'm even feeling a littler better than I did at Tuscaloosa. It's been alittle bit tough mentaly the past few weeks when we didn;t know if there would be a swim. But now I really believe I can race well and the hernia won't be an issue on Sunday."
Potts wants to race for the slot
Potts, like Kemper, is a fearless sportsman who told the New York Times he would have been disappointed if flood conditions wiped out the chance of settling the Olympic spot on the field of play – even though he would have been the winner in a tiebreaker.
“I feel like I have the upper hand in a lot of tie-breaking situations,” Potts said in a interview with the Times. “But it’s easier for me to think about showing up at the starting line and saying, ‘I want to earn it,’ instead of leaving it in someone else’s hands.”
Anticipating what will happen if Kemper and Potts both arrive at the start line healthy and at a peak of fitness is impossible to rate. While Kemper edged out Potts for most of 2005, Potts came on strong in 2006 and 2007. At the 2004 ITU Worlds in 2004, Kemper edged Potts 10th to 11th. At the 2006 ITU Worlds in Lausanne, Kemper took 7th to Potts’ 19th. At the 2007 Hy-Vee inaugural, when Kemper was just coming back and scored an encouraging 17th, Potts was overcome by heat and finished 20th. At the 2007 Beijing World Cup, while Shoemaker was having the race of his life, Potts started out strong but faded to third American. “I don’t know what happened,” said Potts. Kemper, still fighting his sacroiliac, had a disappointing day but was still better off than Potts. At Tuscaloosa, Kemper dueled even with Potts, but ultimately faded, presumably
suffering from the hernia.
With this race counting for all the Olympic marbles, neither man is offering excuses. It’s win or go home.
And, with due respect for the longshot dreams of Doug Friman, who almost nailed a spot in 2000 and then traveled the world and trained alone in the jungles of Brazil, he too has a shot at glory. And so too does Brian Fleischmann, who limped off after the bike with a leg injury at Vancouver.
But only if Kemper and Potts are hit with a catastrophic crash or injury or illness.
The women
Thanks to her stirring silver medal at the ITU World Championship at Vancouver, Sarah Haskins has the auspicious starting number 7. But just three places behind is rival Sarah Groff at number 10.
Haskins recalls collapsing last year in the smoldering heat at the Hy-Vee finish line with a resounding 4th place finish not far behind US winner Laura Bennett. “I remember crossing the finish line and knowing I could not go another step,” recalls Haskins, who was carried off to the medical tent by a finish line volunteer. “It was one of the hardest races I’ve ever done with brutal heat.”
On June 8, she proved she could race in the cold at Vancouver. “As a triathlete, I like to say I can race in any conditions,” says Haskins. “You race in so many locations in such different weather, your body has to be ready to go at will – whether it’s 50 or 100 degrees.”
Haskins accepts the fact that her breakthrough silver at Vancouver doesn’t count in the Olympic quest. And neither does the prospect of a the big Hy-Vee prize purse distract her. “The last thing on your mind is the money,” she says. “Ultimately, it’s all about the Olympics.”
Sarah Groff shares Haskins’ perspective. She crashed hard on the bike and was unable to finish last year at Hy-Vee when a local woman walked in front of her. Fighting broken ribs and pain, Groff scored a gritty top five finish the next week at Vancouver.
“Right now, most people think Sarah Haskins, who is a great athlete and has had great performances, is a sure thing,” said Groff. “But over the years, I have learned that in racing anything is possible.”
But Groff, who is coached by Siri Lindley and is the recipient of Lindley’s limitless Power of Positive Thinking, believes she is on the verge of yet another breakthrough.
“In Tuscaloosa, I found I was physically ready, but I didn’t race my own race,” said Groff. “I raced scared and let everyone else dictate how my race would be run. I can’t say the results would have been different, but I know I had a big mental block on the run. When Sarah put 9 seconds on me, it seemed like an insurmountable mental gap. If I had run my own race, I am sure I would have run faster.”
At Vancouver, Groff struggled with her helmet in T2 and started the run 33rd, but blazed by 26 competitors to finish 7th. “At the finish, I thought ‘Is that it?’ I definitely had more in the tank. So right now, my ultimate goal is to cross the finish line and know I had put it all out there on the line. No matter what happens in the Olympic Trials battle, I will come out of this a stronger athlete.”
Right now, says Groff, “I feel like I have nothing to lose. And that is a fun place to be.”
