Courtesy: USAT

John Reback and Sabine Bildstein were the overall men and women's winners at the largest USA Triathlon Age Group Triathlon National Championships ever held, on Saturday in Shreveport, La.

Approximately 1,250 triathletes were in Shreveport for the race, which was the only qualifier for the 2004 International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Triathlon Championships in Madeira Island, Portugal. Athletes completed a 1.5k swim, 40k bike and 10k run.

Reback (North Palm Beach, Fla.), 33, the brother of top U.S. elite triathlete Laura Reback (ranked No. 2 in the world), completed the race in 1 hour, 55 minutes, 58 seconds. Brandon Marsh (Austin, Texas), 28, was second overall in 1:56:18 and Marty Gaal (Orlando, Fla.), 31, was third in 1:57:20.

Bildstein (Austin, Texas), 31, won the women's race in 2:07:31. Melanie Holloway (Alpharetta, Ga.), 33, finished second to Bildstein in her age group and overall, completing the race in 2:08:01. It was the second year in a row Holloway had finished second overall. Last year she finished behind Julie Swail (Irvine, Calif.), who is now competing as an elite.

Rebeccah Wassner (New York, N.Y.) was third in 2:08:43.

The top 16 finishers in each age group qualified for the world championships.

Among the past age group national champions who stood atop the podium were Pete Kain (Cupertino, Calif.; m40-44), who was the 2002 overall men's champion, Karen Chequer-Pfeiffer (Santa Rosa, Calif.; w45-49), Jim Bruskewitz (Madison, Wis.; m50-54), Mary Dunn (Cheshire, Conn.; w50-54), Paula Larsen (Horicon, Wis.; w55- 59) and Jan Miller (Marana, Ariz.; w65-69).

Complete race results can be found by clicking the "Results" link on the left of this page.