Race Previews

Payne Seeks 2nd BOUS Title...

Thursday, 19 June 2014 00:10

BEST OF THE US - On Sunday, the new "open-to-all" Capitol City Triathlon will also host the 2014 BOUS Championship. Staged at Lake Phalen in St. Paul, both events promise to be outstanding, excellent in every way.

Both races will be somewhat more "intimate" than was originally hoped. Sharing the weekend schedule with SEVEN other multisport races, all of which will be more intimate than they wanted to be, and all of which are worthy of your entry fee, made this inevitable.

But races don't need to large to be great. They don't need to be be large to be exciting and significant....

Let's discuss BOUS. The 2013 USAT Athletes of the Year--Michigan's Daniel Stubleski and Tennessee's Kirsten Sass--will be racing. As will Minnesota's own Matthew Payne, who is undefeated in four starts (three course records!) this season and appears to be unstoppable. A win on Sunday would make M-Payne BOUS's first multiple champ. He was also victorious in 2011, when the race was held in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Minnesota's Men's Team consists of Payne, Kevin O'Connor and Marcus Stromberg. Our women's squad features Suzie Fox, Diane Hankee and Nicole Heininger. Both should vie for Team awards.

On paper, Wisconsin will field the strongest women's team. Their formidable trio includes Cindi Bannink (2nd at Nationals in 2010), Dani Fischer (winner of the 2014 USAT Long Distance Triathlon Championships) and Heather Curnutt.

Others with Minnesota ties who will be racing are Sean Cooley (ND), Lakeville's Kyle Serreyn (photo R), who will be racing for Team Nebraska (He was attending Creighton University when he qualified), and Forest Lake's Gaby Bunten, who will represent Iowa. (She is a recent graduate of Iowa State University.) Bunten won her first tri--Liberty Olympic- two weekends ago.

Payne isn't the only returning Champion. Alaska's Jens Beck, who won in 2010, when the event was staged in Mission Viejo, California, will also be there, as will last year's women's winner, the aforementioned Kirsten Sass. Also, the only woman to win USAT Nationals twice (2007, 2006) in the 21st century, Jennifer Garrison of Illinios, will come into the event as a podium favorite.

BOUS will be a spectator-friendly race and we encourage all triathletes (and their friends and families) who will not be racing on Sunday, to come out and watch this special exhibition, head-to-head amateur racing at its best. If you'd like to race in the host event--the Capitol City Sprint--which will precede the Championship, registration is still open. CAPITOL CITY TRI INFO