A total of 20 teams, including seven from the United States, are expected to start in the CAMTRI Pan American Mixed Relay Championships at Sarasota’s Nathan Benderson Park on Sunday.
Forecasters do not see any interference from Hurricane Michael on the event, so it’s expected to go on as scheduled.
The Mixed Relay includes a 350 m swim (one lap), followed by a one-lap, 6.1 km bike phase, and a single-lap, 1.5 km run.
The weekend program includes an ITU World Cup – the secondary series below the World Series – race and the U.S. Elite National Championships (on Saturday).
The individual races will be on a sprint course: 750 m swim, 20 km bike phase and 5 km run. Several of the world’s top triathletes are entered in the World Cup race, including Vincent Luis (FRA: no. 3 in the ITU world rankings) and Tyler Mislawchuk (CAN: 11th) among the men and Kirsten Kasper (USA: 3), Taylor Spivey (USA: 6) and Joanna Brown (CAN: 14) among the women.
In terms of the U.S. nationals, the top American entries by their current ITU world ranking include:
Men:
34. Eli Hemming
38. Matthew McElroy
48. Kevin McDowell
69. Morgan Pearson
70. Tony Smoragiewicz
Women:
3. Kirsten Kasper
6. Taylor Spivey
24. Chelsea Burns
43. Tamara Gorman
60. Sophie Chase
At the 2017 Nationals, also held in Sarasota, McDowell and Smoragiewicz were the top two Americans in the race, with Rodrigo Gonzalez (MEX) the overall winner.
The women’s World Cup race was win by Juri Ide (JPN), with Chelsea Sodaro (USA) second and Spivey and Burns fifth and sixth overall and 2-3 in the U.S. Nationals.
Both Gonzalez and Ide return for 2018. Look for results here.
