MINNEAPOLIS -- Greg Bennett kept the winning tradition, and
big paydays, going in his family.
Bennett set a course record time to capture the men's
championship, and Vanessa Fernandes claimed the women's title
Saturday in the Life Time Fitness Triathlon at Lake Nokomis.
Bennett, runner-up in the 2005 Life Time race, finished in 1
hour, 48 minutes, 49.9 seconds. The previous record of 1:49:33 was
set by Craig Walton in 2003.
The 35-year-old Australia native took home the $60,000
first-place prize, plus a bonus of $60,000 for winning the Life
Time Fitness Triathlon Series, and was one of three men to beat the
old record time. Runner-up Bruno Pais of Portugal finished in
1:49:13.5, and Craig Alexander of Australia placed third in
1:49:24.9.
"To walk away with 120 (thousand dollars) today, I'm pretty
happy," Bennett said.
While that didn't quite match the record $200,000 his wife,
Laura, collected for her victory in the Hy-Vee Triathlon last month
in Des Moines, Iowa, Bennett was fine with his earnings Saturday.
"At least I held up my end of the bargain," joked Bennett, who
had trained in Florida but recently bought a home in Boulder,
Colo., and became a U.S. citizen. "It's going to be a very big tax
bill at the end of the year."
Laura Bennett finished sixth in the women's race with a time of
2:05:05.7.
Her husband was in eighth place after the 1.5-kilometer swim and
in fifth following the 40K bike ride, then made his move during the
10K run that ends the race.
"The last couple of miles really hurt, but I just had to hold
it together," Bennett said. "I wasn't confident until I was in
the final straightaway. Not really confident."
Bennett said he was happy the temperatures -- in the 60s for the
race that began at 7 a.m. CDT -- were much lower than the past two
years, when racers had to deal with hot, steamy conditions.
"That's comfortable racing," he said.
Defending champion Hunter Kemper, the only American male winner
in the triathlon's six-year history, was fourth in 1:49:51.2. St.
Paul native David Thompson led after the bike portion but had to
settle for sixth on the Olympic-distance course in 1:50:14.5.
In the women's event, Fernandes, a 21-year-old from Portugal,
finished in 2:00:31.0 to collect $60,000. Top Australian Emma
Snowsill, the two-time defending champion, was second in 2:01:10.1.
Fernandes finished eighth in the 2004 Olympics, placed second in
the 2006 World Championships and has won four straight European
titles.
She was in first place after the swim portion and in third
following the bike ride before dominating in the running event.
"She's placing the bar really high in terms of performance,"
Snowsill said. "She just seemed so strong in everything she did
today."
Fernandes said she was introduced to the triathlon by her
father, Venceslau, a former cyclist who won the 1984 Volta a
Portugal.
The large crowd Saturday was a pleasant surprise to Fernandes.
"They gave me a lot of strength, pushed me on," she said. "In
America, they love all of the sports."
Great Britain's Julie Dibens, the leader after the bike portion,
took third in 2:02:13.8. Becky Lavelle, a Minnetonka native who was
in second going into the run, placed fourth in 2:03:46.9
Saturday's event served as the concluding race in the 2006 Life
Time Fitness Triathlon Series and the opening competition in the
2007 series. The other events are the New York City Triathlon (July
22), the Chicago Triathlon (Aug. 26), the Los Angeles Triathlon
(Sept. 9) and the U.S. Open Triathlon in Dallas (Oct. 14).