Tri-umphs

By Jim Starr

This is a banner year for triathlon. It marks the competition's initial entry into the Olympic arena as the women's race is slated to be among the opening sporting events. The U.S. Olympic trials for triathlon will take place on Memorial Day weekend in Irving, TX (home of the Dallas Cowboys). The race will take place around Lake Carolyn and will be contested at the 1.5K (.93 miles) swim, 40K (24.85 miles) bike and 10K (6.21 miles) run distances to be used in Australia.

The field will include many foreign athletes who will vie for the richest triathlon purse ever offered on the US mainland, $100,000--quite a reward.

Although athletic virtue is (visibly) its own reward, recognition is quite nice too. As multisporters prepare in earnest for their upcoming season, it's worthwhile to remember top local performers who have received accolades for their consistency last season. Few are more deserving than this column's featured athlete . . . .

Marjan Huizing

Marjan Huizing, whose duathlon exploits have been detailed in this column before, went to San Diego at the end of February to be recognized by USA Triathlon (USAT--the national governing board for multisport racing) and Competitor magazine as their Outstanding Female Duathlete of the year for 1999. When you combine 36 to 38 minute 10Ks with killer bike speed, you have pro duathlete material; but Huizing maintained amateur status in 1999, taking both the national and world overall titles. She did over 40 races in duathlon and its component sports (running and biking). Huizing was the first women to cross the line in 19 of those races. Her credits for last year also include third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishes among the professional women duathletes.

The very personable Marjan was raised on a farm in the north of Holland near the German border. That's where she got her cycling start, biking twelve miles back and forth (often with her sister) throughout her pre-college schooling. As she grew up, she indulged her athletic interests through ice skating, horseback riding, and later rowing (her first athletic competition) in college. Because the rowing training involved biking and running, she began to fathom her unusual gifts in those two disciplines. Marjan started participating in multisport events as she earned a master's degree and continued to compete through a year-long visit to Australia. She did very well but stopped competing the year before earning a Ph.D. in medicine. Huizing, a world traveler, arrived two years ago to begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. She is currently involved in exploring genetic interventions affecting lysosomal action of potential use in combating severe forms of albinism--and she's pretty too! Remarkably, her parents ventured outside the Netherlands for the first time last year in order to visit Marjan here.

Marjan, who just turned 32, is a newly-minted professional duathlete. A competitor for the team from the All-American Bike Center in Damascus, she is gathering an impressive list of sponsors that included both Aegis and Cervelo bicycles, Rudy project glasses, and the radically-designed X-treme wheels. Marjan is also a member of Powerbar's Team Elite and hopes to have Asics (her favorite running shoe) aboard soon. In 2000, Huizing wants to compete in the prestigious Dannon Duathlon series as a pro although she has already missed the series opener due to a knee injury that has hampered her running. She also wants to do both the nationals and the World Duathlon Championship. If the rules prevent her from competing in the worlds for Team USA, she may try to qualify for the Dutch team. Marjan also wants to compete at top levels in cycling and hints that there may be a Hawaii Ironman Triathlon somewhere in her future.

Other Award Winners

Pittsburgh's Roger Brockenbrough represented the mid-Atlantic triathlon region well by earning USAT/Competitor magazine honors as the Outstanding Male Grandmasters (60+) triathlete of the year. Brockenbrough also was among the region's multisport athletes who helped earn between fifteen and twenty percent of the prestigious national magazine Inside Triathlon (IT) All-American awards. Locals were prominently represented here as well.

First-year triathlete Desiree Ficker of Potomac earned top honors in the 20-24 age group for her efforts that included both an age-group win at nationals and a solid performance at the Hawaii Ironman. Dunn Loring, VA's Eric Sorensen was an IT All-American among 25-29 year-olds while Amanda Gillam of Baltimore and Lutherville, MD's Hollie Kenney-Hollis earned like awards in that age-group among women. Gillam also earned Duathlon All-American honors. Reston's Kim McLaughlin parlayed a good season and second-place at the St. Joseph, MO USAT nationals last September into an All-American slot as well. Like Gillam, she doubled as a Duathlon All-American. David McNeely of Glen Arm, MD and Charlene Magee of Midlothian, VA earned All-American honors in the 55-59 age group. Antonio Panizza of Reston (60-64) and Marge Stahl of Annandale (65-69) also received All-American accolades.

Local Duathlon All-Americans, in addition to Gillam and McLaughlin, included Craig Lowry and the redoubtable (racing-wise) Huizing among the 30-34 year-olds. Huizing earned top honors in the age group. Danville, VA's Joe Carr was the top 55-59 year-old.

Locally, the Triathlantic (nee Tri-Maryland) Biathlon (sic) series crowned its winners. The female winner in the regular series was Patti Logan (35) of Richmond, VA who bested Germantown, MD's Sue Neurath (40). Among the males, Bob Strange (41) of New Freedom, PA edged Alexandria's Jean-Pierre Bacle by a scant 22 points after duking it out head-to-head in 10 races. Strange beat Bacle in six of those races. In the mountain bike series, Steve Smith (32) of Germantown, featured in earlier columns, beat Strange for the title. No female winner was crowned as no one had completed the requisite number of races.

Judy Flannery Lives On

As we go to press, it is three years since the untimely death of perennial age-group national and international champion Judy Flannery of Chevy Chase. Readers may recall that she was run down by an unlicensed driver while on a training ride. This year Flannery was selected as one of the twenty most influential people in the sport of triathlon and Age Group Triathlete of the Century by Inside Triathlon. In addition, daughter Erin won the best student documentary award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her documentary, Judy's Time, about the remarkable life of this mother of five, multisport athlete, former career woman, and volunteer in service to the homeless. The 40-minute film also earned the Bricker Humanitarian award. Flannery's legacy of humanitarianism, love and the pursuit of excellence continues to live on.

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