Courtesy: USAT

USA Triathlon has announced that Oahu, Hawaii, and Bellingham, Wash., have been named the sites for the 2004 USA Triathlon Olympic Team Trials.

The Oahu race will be held April 18, 2004 and the Bellingham race will be held in June, 2004 on a date to be determined. In between, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Triathlon Championships on May 8-9 in Madeira Island, Portugal, will serve as the third Olympic qualifying race.

The two cities were chosen from among four bid cities. The other two cities were Clermont, Fla., and Tempe, Ariz.

The cities were evaluated and selected by a committee that included USA Triathlon staff, members of the Board of Directors, athletes and coaches. The USA Triathlon Board of Directors then endorsed the choices.

"We had a brilliant discussion and the vote was very close," said Valerie Ellsworth Gattis, president of USA Triathlon and chairperson of the committee.

"We weighed all the variables of the courses -- swim, bike and run, the transitions, race management, weather and hill gradient. In the end, it came down to the athletes and what would give them the best ability to compete and qualify for Athens."

Both races will be managed by Bill Burke and Premier Event Management. Burke and Premier Event Management directed many USA Triathlon- and ITU-sanctioned races, including the Ford New York City Triathlon, the DANNON Duathlon series, the AARP Tri-Umph series and the 1999 and 2002 ITU DANNON Duathlon World Championships.

The Hawaii bid was also supported by event consultant John Korff of Korff Enterprises. Korff is a consultant and assisting with the promotion of this year's Ford New York City ITU World Cup Triathlon along with Premier Event Management. Korff Enterprises is new to triathlon, but has produced many sporting events in Honolulu.

"We are very excited to be working with Premier Event Management and Korff Enterprises," said USA Triathlon executive director Steve Locke.

"We are looking forward to getting the communities of Oahu and Bellingham excited about triathlon and the Olympics."

The 2004 Summer Olympics will be held Aug. 13-29 in Athens, Greece. The women's triathlon will be held Aug. 25 and the men's race will be Aug. 26.

The USA Triathlon Olympic Team Trials will be International Triathlon Union (ITU) international points races and will be open to international competition as well as U.S. athletes. However, all athletes competing must be ranked in the ITU's top 125 one week out from the event.

Only athletes ranked in the ITU's top 125 in the world can qualify for the Olympic Games.

The 2004 triathlon Olympic team will be chosen as follows.

The first U.S. male and female to cross the finish line at the trials race in April in Hawaii will qualify for the team.

The first U.S. male and female to finish the ITU world championship race on May 8-9 in Portugal will qualify the team. If one of these athletes has already qualified in Hawaii, the spots will roll down to the next U.S. finishers.

A slot will not be directly chosen from the third trials race in Bellingham, Wash. Instead, the result of the race will be used in the computation of the score used to determine the third Olympic team members.

Athletes with an ITU world ranking of 125 or better as of May 7, 2004, are eligible to compete for a third Olympic team berth at this race.