Welch, Smyers Lead the Way in Performing Arts Triathlon

Greg Welch and Karen Smyers both overcame adversity Sunday en route to individual championships at the Mazda Orange County Performing Arts Center Triathlon at Lake Mission Viejo.

Welch, the overall winner in 1 hour 52 minutes 33 seconds over the course that spanned a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bike and a 10-kilometer run, has battled back from a head-on collision with a motorist last October.

“This is the best my knee has felt since (the accident),” said Welch, a native of Sydney, Australia, who also trains in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Encinitas.

In training for the Hawaii Ironman, which is Welch’s focal point, he has had to cut back his training regimen on the bike from the usual 300 to 400 miles per week to around a weekly clip of 200 because of a crash-related knee injury. That change seemed to pay off Sunday.

“This was a serious training tune-up,” said Welch. “Maybe I’ll back off more often.”

For Smyers, there was no physical problem, but rather tough competition.

Smyers, a native of Woburn, Mass., managed her first triumph in almost two years over Australia’s Michelle Jones, Triathlete magazine’s triathlete of the year in 1993 and defending OCPAC winner.

The key to Smyers’ victory was the bike segment, where she was a minute faster than any athlete in the 15-woman field.

“I thought with that minute (lead after the bike) that this was my race to lose,” Smyers said. “A minute is a pretty healthy gap.”

Smyers heard the footsteps, but actually ended up widening the 56-second lead going into the final running segment by another nine seconds over Jones, posting a winning overall time of 2:04:01 to the Australian’s 2:05:06.

“It was just one of the things where you are running as fast as you can,” Smyers said. “If they would have told me I was running 5:20s (per mile) I wouldn’t have slowed down, but if they had said 7s, I probably couldn’t have picked it up either.”

With the top three U.S. athletes in both the men’s and women’s races vying for a spot on the U.S. team for the 1994 Goodwill Games, the race to qualify was close.

Nick Radkewich (1:54:21), former University athlete Andrew Carlson (1:54:57) and former Corona del Mar and UC Irvine runner Darren Wood (1:55:00) took the next three places after Welch, assuring them of a spot in the international event, July 23-Aug. 7 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Radkewich crossed the finish line after the swim and bike phases in fifth position, but managed to move up during the final running leg. Carlson was the first athlete out of the water on the opening leg.

Wood moved gradually to the front of the pack, only 20th after the swim, and managed to put himself in contention after posting the fourth-fastest bike leg of the 25-man field.

Along with Smyers, Martha Sorenson (2:07:58) and Juliana Nieverqelt (2:09:57) will represent the United States at the Goodwill Games.