Full. Speed. Ahead.
U.S. Elite Triathlon National Team member Matt McElroy (Huntington Beach, Calif.) was the only man to run under the 31-minute barrier in the 10K at the Olympic-distance World Triathlon Cup Tongyeong, cruising to victory Oct. 15 in South Korea for the second time in his career in a time of 1 hour, 44 minutes, 49 seconds.
McElroy is on a nice podium streak during this final stretch of the World Triathlon season — he took third on Sept. 3 at the World Triathlon Cup Valencia and second on Sept. 11 at the World Triathlon Cup Karlovy Vary before his gold at Tongyeong. All great performances leading up to the final two World Triathlon Championship Series stops in Bermuda (Nov. 5-6) and Abu Dhabi (Nov. 24-26).
Fellow U.S. elite triathletes Darr Smith (19th) and Brent Demarest (44th) also raced in Tongyeong.
On the U.S. women's side, Tamara Gorman (Rapid City, S.D.) placed 13th in Tongyeong — a welcome return to World Triathlon racing for Gorman who raced her first Olympic-distance event in three years.
Americas Triathlon Cup Stockon #
Here stateside, Heartland Racing Co. in Stockton, Missouri, hosted the Americas Triathlon Cup Stockton where up and coming elites from North, Central and South America raced for World Triathlon rankings points and valuable experience in the draft-legal format.
U.S. elite up and comer Nicholas Holmes (Glendale, Wis.) landed his first Americas Cup podium, racing to third in a time of 53:07.
Fellow U.S. athlete Davis Bove (Franklin, Tenn.) placed sixth.
Annie Kelly and Lydia Russell led the U.S. women, placing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Women's Collegiate Triathlon Regional Championships #
Heartland Racing Co. in Stockton, Missouri, also hosted the Women's Collegiate Triathlon West Regional Championship, as Division I, DII and DIII women's collegiate programs from across the west region raced for qualification to the Women's Collegiate Triathlon National Championships Nov. 12 in Tempe, Arizona.
The Women's Collegiate Triathlon East Regional Championship was held at Smith Mountain Lake State Park in Huddleston, Virginia, as part of the Kinetic Cup Triathlon Festival, hosted by race management company Kinetic Multisports.
To date, more than 40 schools offer women’s collegiate triathlon at the varsity level, an important benchmark reached earlier this year as the NCAA Emerging Sport for Women now has a few more steps to take on its way to being fully managed by the NCAA as a Championship Sport, including committee, council, divisional and budget approvals. In August, the University of Arizona became the latest school to announce it would add varsity women’s triathlon to its sports programs.
Throughout the next month in the lead up to the Women’s Collegiate Triathlon National Championships USA Triathlon will highlight the athletes, coaches and storylines in “day in the life” features, social media takeovers and more. Check out @usatriathlon social media and usatriathlon.org for the content.
