Soothing Victories for Pair

Watching the debut of the triathlon as an Olympic sport this week won’t be easy for Barb Lindquist and Australia’s Chris McCormack, who despite being the sport’s top athletes, won’t be competing in Sydney. But Sunday’s victory in the inaugural Los Angeles Triathlon and the $20,000 prize money helped ease the disappointment of not making their Olympic teams.

“This win dampens the blow, I’ll be able to watch the Olympics now,” said McCormack, who led the pack of 71professionals in 1 hour 44 minutes 18.2 seconds.

Lindquist didn’t turn around until the corner nearing the finish line and saw she had a huge lead on her nearest competitor, who finished almost three minutes behind Lindquist’s time of 1:57:05.3.

Lindquist tried three times to make the U.S. Olympic team. First she led all the Americans before finishing third in April at Sydney.

Next, she raced in the U.S. Olympic trials in Dallas and was in second place early in the running portion of the triathlon before she collapsed from heat exhaustion, requiring medical attention. Lindquist, ranked fifth in the world, did not finish the race.

She also tried to make the Olympic team in 1988 as a swimmer, but was unable to finish above seventh place in freestyle events.

However, this was not a race of vengeance, she said, but another example of her moving on.

“Vengeance is not a positive thing,” said Lindquist, who will compete for the first time in the Ironman next month.

But her husband, Loren, said, “The best [U.S. triathlete] won’t be in Sydney this week.”

McCormack will vacation in Europe this week after being snubbed by the Australian Olympic team. He was asked to be an alternate on the team, whose two members were a coaching selection and last spot was decided on a race result. He still couldn’t understand why he was kept off the team except “maybe for strategy reasons.” But he has used it as a motivator, winning nine races since May.

“It’ll be tough watching a team made up of guys you’ve beaten,” he said.

His countryman, Greg Bennett, will be the alternate. The two roomed in Los Angeles this week and joked about the race coming down to a sprint finish and it did. Bennett, who finished less than 30 seconds behind, was in first after the swimming portion, but McCormack caught up five kilometers into the 24.8-mile cycling portion and it was a tight race until the end of the 6.2-mile run.

Organizers estimated 2,100 people competed in the triathlon.

*

Karen Smyers, racing for the first time since undergoing surgery to remove cancerous thyroid lymph nodes, finished 23rd out of 24 women racers.