This past Sunday, Dannon hosted the largest duathlon in the U.S. which took place in Naperville, IL, and Andrea Ratkovic was there to finalize the series standings with another top finish, giving her enough points to win the seven race national duathlon series.

Canadian, Lucy Smith, beat Ratkovic by only 41 seconds, and won the Naperville race. Third place went to Lauren Jensen, who was out of sight by almost a minute and a half. The race started with Smith and Desiree Ficker running hard and finished the first 5K run together, with Ratkovic only a few seconds back. Into the 30K bicycle portion of the race, Ratkovic bridged the gap quickly and the three leaders duked it out until Ficker was struck with the misfortune of a punctured tire with only a couple miles to go. Into the last 5K run, Smith used her strong running background to open up a gap to the finish.

Ratkovic who has had a cold the past few weeks, was elated with the results.

"Lucy is a great athlete, cold or no cold, she'd be a challenge to beat," Ratkovic said. "The race was real competitive with the three of us up front like that - to bad Desiree flatted-out, it would have made the for an interesting morning!"

Even though there is still one more race in the Dannon Duathlon series, the 2002 ITU Dannon Duathlon World Championships in Alpharetta, Georgia, on October 20, Andrea Ratkovic has already earned enough points to become the series Champion.

Dannon Duathlon Naperville, Illinois
Sunday, September 22, 2002
5K run, 30K bike, 5K run - draft legal for pros

Pro Women
1. Lucy Smith (CAN) 1:28:16
2. Andrea Ratkovic 1:28:57
3. Lauren Jensen 1:30:17
4. Anne Preisig 1:31:31
5. Jamima Iley (SWE) 1:36:43
DNF: Desiree Ficker, flat tire

Pro Men
1. Sam Wilbur 1:16:55
2. Travis Kuhl 1:17:01
3. Greg Watson 1:18:36
4. Eric Schwartz 1:19:14
5. Chris Tolonen 1:19:25