Dannon Duathlon Everett
Everett, Washington
Sunday, July 28, 2002
F1 Forma - 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run

Men's Race
With sprinkles before the race and rain threatening, the Dannon Duathlon in Everett, a Seattle suburb, got underway Sunday morning. The course stayed dry, although the temperature dropped as the day went on. Four-time US Champion Greg Watson put in another dominant performance to earn his 22 Dannon Duathlon victory on the home course of Chris Tolonen, who won the 2001 race in Watson's absence. Travis Kuhl, the last American to beat Watson in a Dannon Duathlon (Alpharetta, June 2001) briefly held the lead on the first run. The run course was two miles, done three times along with two ten mile bikes, and included a sharp downhill before the turnaround. Kuhl hit the one mile mark at the turnaround in about 4:30, and his time of 9:44 at the end of two miles gave him an eight second lead over Watson and Eric Schwartz.

Watson continues to appear invincible, and he quickly took the lead on the first bike. Tolonen moved into second until LeRoy Popowski took over that spot late in the bike. Watson outsplit Popowski by a slim five seconds on the first bike, but his lead was still 35 seconds starting the second run.

Popowski was still in second going into T2, but a quicker bike to run transition allowed Tolonen to move back into second. That position was short lived as Popowski zoomed back into second, but a wrong turn late in the bike cost Popowski a few minutes and dropped him to sixth going into the final run.

Watson was able to back off a little late in the race and he won by 53 seconds over Tolonen, who finished second. Kuhl maintained a slight lead on Schwartz throughout the race, and beat him by 6 seconds to take third. Popowski had to sprint to the line to take fifth place from Matt Seeley by just 3 seconds. Matt Berg finished sixth.

Women's Race
Just two weeks ago Andrea Ratkovic was the second place finisher at Dannon Carlsbad, finishing several minutes in front of Desiree Ficker. But Ficker, on the mend from injury, is getting back to race shape. At the end of the first run Ficker was just one second behind Ratkovic, with Anne Preisig in third, just off the pace. A slow T1 was costly to Ratkovic, as Ficker put 21 seconds on her and never looked back.

Ten days ago Ficker finished 11^th at the US National Time Trial Championships, and that form showed Sunday as she put nearly one minute on Ratkovic on the first ten mile bike. Preisig continued in third with a small lead over Janet Howard. Ficker added to her time throughout the race, and her final time of 1:32:10 gave her a 3:16 victory over second place Ratkovic. Preisig finished third, with Howard in fourth, and Canadian Victoria Seay in fifth place.