Fast Triathlon
Santos, São Paulo, Brazil
Sunday, Feb 9, 2003

Overall Results:
1 - Leandro Macedo (BRA) - 52 points
2 - Brian Fleischman (USA) - 48
3 - Claude Eksteen (RSA) - 41
4 - Paulo Miyasiro (BRA) - 37
5 - Juraci Moreira Jr. (BRA) - 35
6 - Oscar Galindez (ARG) - 32
7 - Andrew Kelsey (USA) - 30
8 - Victor Plata (USA) - 29
9 - Brent McMahon (CAN) - 29
10 - Lieuwe Boonstra - (RSA) - 19
11 - Junichi Yamamoto - (JAP) - 18
12 - Ezequiel Morales (ARG) - 17
13 - César Ottaviani (ARG) - 10
14 - Shane Armstrong (CAN) - 9
15 - Jamie Cleveland (CAN) - 6
16 - Brad Storm (RSA) - 4
17 - Satoshi Iwata (JAP) - 3
19 - Shingo Yoshikoshi (JAP) - 3

Team Overall
1- Brazil - 124 points
2 - USA - 107
3 - South África - 64
4 - Argentina - 59
5 - Canadá - 44
6 - Japan - 24

Brazil won both the individual and team race at the 5th Fast Triathlon in Santos, São Paulo, at the Ponta da Praia Beach. The experienced Leandro Macedo won the overall title and was the first brazilian ever to win the men race. The race had 18 competitors from six differents countries and a triple super sprint format with 200 meters swim (1 lap), 3600 meters bike (6 laps) and 1350 meters run (3 laps) under a brazilian tropical and humid climate.

The brazilian squad was formed by the top three brazilians at the ITU World Ranking, Leandro Macedo, Juraci Moreira and Paulo Miyasiro all from the Pão de Açucar Triathlon Team. The brazilian team won the Team overall title with 124 points with the USA in second with 107 and South Africa in third with 64.

On the individual race, Macedo, 34, the oldest competitor gave an incredible show. Macedo won the first and second race and was 2nd on the last one. The most amazing moment happened on the second race as Macedo went on a 300 meter sprint to catch first place Claude Eksteen from South Africa. “This race shouldn

“I trained pretty hard for this race. I sold my vacation, but it was worth it to make this incredible public happy”, said Macedo, referring to the huge crowed that packed the race arena. “The public helped a lot, their vibration made me twice as much stronger than everybody else”, Macedo practices transcendental meditation daily for over 10 years now.

THE RACE

On all three sprint races of the Men Fast Triathlon, Macedo showed an
outstanding performance, winning the first two races and runner-up on the last one. Along with him, American Brian Fleischmann had excellent results, 2nd on the the 1st race, 3rd on the next one and winning the final one.

South African, Claude Eksteen started with a 6th place, behind Macedo, Fleischman, Moreira, Miyasiro and Canadian Brent McMahon (Winner of the Fast Triathlon, 2001). On the 2nd race, he has 2nd and on the last 3rd.

On the first race, japanese Junichi Yamamoto, exited the water first, actually Yamamoto, was first on all three sprint races, leaving the water with 3 minutes and 27 seconds. On the first race, Yamamoto entered the bike-transition area with a big lead, however he lost precious time on the transition and many athletes of the pack, pulled by Oscar Galindez, one of the worldalindez was the winner of the first Fast Triathlon (1999) and runner-up on 2000 and 2001.

On the final leg of the first race, the brazilian team ran together on the lead until the 1 km mark, then Macedo sprinted the final 300 meters to win the race with 13 minutes and 31 seconds. Brian had the best run (3 minutes and 39 seconds)  passing Moreira and Miyasiro on the final meters to take second. "Macedo ran too strong, I couldner leading most of the race ended up in 11th place.

On the second race, south african Lieuwe Boonstra exited the swim-bike transition first and lead the bike leg. On the, Eksteen cought up with teammate Boonstra and tried a team effort, but Boonstra couldnteen. On the fourth and last lap, Eksteen was all alone ahead of chasing group formed by Brian and the Brazilians. All the sudden, Macedo went on for another 300 meters sprint and went on from third to first on about 20 seconds without giving a chance for the leaders to match his pace.

Macedoarena was packed and people got very excited. "I dons, so I decided to give it a try and worked out. Maybe the right thing was to rest and then go all out on the last one, but at the moment I decided no give bad luck a chance" said Macedo after the race. Juraci and Miyasiro had another good race placing on the top five again and guaranting important point for the team race.

On the last race, brazilian  happines was contagiuous, hometown Miyasiro showed everybody why he is one of the top swimmers on triathlon nowadays opening up a big lead on the competitors. He exited the water 10 seconds ahead of the pack, with 3 minutes and 30 seconds, had a solo bike and went on to run the first three laps on the lead. On the final sprint however he could keep up the fast chasing pace of Macedo and Fleischman.

Fleischman, who did his first ever triple sprint tri, adapted pretty well to the race format, taking the lead on the final lap of the last race, winning and helping the American team  to win second on the countries race. "I liked very much this race and hope to be part next year, when I plan to train specifically for it to give a tougher time to the Brazilians", joked Fleischman.

Macedo crossed on 2nd on the last race carrying the brazilian flag. Eksteen secure third overall with a 3rd place finishing on the last race. Galindez who had the fastest biking split of the day (6 minutes and 4 seconds) on the last race, finished fourth. Miyasiro crossed in 5th, which was good enough to finish fourth overall. Moreira who had his worst finish on the last race, 9th, ended up in 5th overall.

Galindez ended up in 6th overall, ahead of Americans, Andrew Kelsey and Victor Plata. Brent McMahon, again couldn on 9th overall. 

ZERO CHANCES TO BAD LUCK

For Macedo, the experience won the race. “This title is a personal realization that Iprepare and compete on this type of race. Experience counts the most” said the athlete that change his personal tatic during the race. “The best is to win the 1st race, to rest on the second and to go all out on the last one, however I decided to give no chance to bad luck. I don so I went all out on the second as I saw a small possibility to win. I would have tried to win the last one if the second had not taken as much as it did from me”.

Runner-up place Brian Fleischmann and third place Claude Eksteen, were impressed with Macedot race” said Brian, 24, a Colorado Springs resident that race for the first time on the Fast Triathlon. “Next year, I will come more prepared.”

BOY FROM SANTOS MADE PUBLIC TO GO NUTS

Another big moment on the race was when Paulo Miyasiro, hometown favorite and one of the top swimmers on the ITU Circuit exited the water. A 10 second lead out of the water and a solo ride on the bike, made the brazilians to go nuts.  Miyasiro ended up third as Brian and Macedo passed him on the final meters. “It was great to compete on my hometown, their cheers made extra strong” said Miyasiro.

On the overall race Miyasiro ended up in fourth with Juraci Moreira (BRA) in 5th and Oscar Galindez (ARG) in 6th. Galindez who lives in Santos for the past seven years won the first Fast Triathlon and was second on 2000 and 2001.

For Juraci “this is a team race, we came here to win, everyone gave its best and in the end it was worth it”. The brazilian team coach, Marcos Paulo Reis stated “the brazilian team was so determined, the public helped and now it all happiness in Santos”.    

Official Website
http://redeglobo3.globo.com/jmdv/noticias_triatlo.jsp

You can check race video.