DeBoom, Fuhr Finish First at Oceanside

Tim DeBoom of Lyons, Colo., and Heather Fuhr of Canada were the top men’s and women’s finishers in the California Half Ironman Triathlon on Saturday at Oceanside.

DeBoom, a two-time Ironman World Champion, finished in 3 hours 58 minutes. Fuhr, an Ironman champion, finished in 4 hours 39 minutes. DeBoom, Fuhr and eight other pro finishers split $25,000 in prize money for the triathlon that featured a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13-mile run.

Saturday’s triathlon was one step down from the top tier -- Ironman -- which has a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run within 17 hours.

The California Half Ironman Triathlon served as one of the automatic qualifiers for the Ironman Triathlon World Championships held every October at Kona-Kailua, Hawaii.

The only way to qualify for the Kona championships is by finishing first in an age group at one of the worldwide qualifying races sanctioned by the 24 World Triathlon Corp.

The California Half Ironman Triathlon is the first qualifying race of the 2003 season in the United States. There are only seven more U.S.-based qualifying races and 10 outside the U.S. before the Oct. 18 World Championships at Kona.

The Kona championships feature a field of 1,500. The California Half Ironman Triathlon resulted in 20 qualifying slots for the Kona championships. Only 1,100 slots for the Kona championships remain.

Saturday, 1,665 triathletes in wetsuits, ages 16 to 84, plunged into 61-degree ocean water and began what many athletic trainers and coaches consider one of the toughest athletic competitions.

The course included a swim loop that took the triathletes out of the Oceanside harbor and back before following it with a bike loop that went north past San Onofre then south around Camp Pendleton. The course finished with a run loop along the coastline.

There were 1,602 triathletes who finished the race.

The next Ironman Triathlon World Championship qualifying race is May 4 at St. Croix of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It was the fourth consecutive year the California Half Ironman Triathlon was held at Oceanside and the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.