Courtesy: USAT

The Monster Challenge: Tri Boston returns to Boston Harbor in Massachusetts on Sunday with more competitors and increased significance.

Almost 100 pro/elite triathletes are on the start list for The Monster Challenge, which is an International Triathlon Union (ITU) points race and the USA Triathlon Elite World Championship Qualifier.

The race, sponsored by web site Monster.com and organized by Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray, will be Olympic distance (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) and draft legal. It is one of only two ITU races in the United States this year. The other was the World Cup race in St. Petersburg, Fla., in April.

The racecourse begins with the swim in Boston Harbor by the World Trade Center. The bike takes athletes through the city, out Memorial Drive along the Charles River, past Vassar College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The run is through Marine Industrial Park. The race ends at the World Trade Center and the innovative transition area is inside the WTC.

The United States will send six men and six women to the ITU World Triathlon Championships on Nov. 9 in Cancun, Mexico. The top-three ranked men and top-three ranked women in the United States as of Sept. 2, will receive automatic berths on the team. Other berths will go to top U.S. finishers in Boston, although team participation is also contingent on overall ITU ranking two weeks before the world championships.

Among those U.S. elite women competing Sunday will be Sheila Taormina (Livonia, Mich.; No. 3 U.S., No. 6 world), Laura Reback (North Palm Beach, Fla.; No. 4 U.S., No. 8 world), Joanna Zeiger (Baltimore, Md.; No. 5 U.S., No. 19 world) and Becky Gibbs (San Jose, Calif.; No. 6 U.S., No. 26 world). Also on the start list is Boston-area resident Karen Smyers (Lincoln, Mass.; No. 21 U.S., No. 169 world), the top U.S. women's finisher at the 2001 Monster Challenge.

Among the U.S. elite men on the start list are Joe Umphenour (Bellevue, Wash.; No. 2 U.S., No. 35 world), Brian Fleischmann (Jacksonville, Fla.; No. 3 U.S., No. 45 world), Victor Plata (San Luis Obispo, Calif.; No. 4 U.S., No. 47 world) and Doug Friman (Tucson, Ariz.; No. 5 U.S., No. 53). Also scheduled to compete is U.S. national champion Seth Wealing (Remington, Ind.; No. 12 U.S., No. 146 world), who won the title on Aug. 18 in New York.

The international athletes on the start list include 2001 men's champion Paul Amey of Great Britain and women's champion Evelyn Williamson of New Zealand. Others to watch are Canada's Kathy Tremblay, Gilberto Gonzales of Venezuela, Craig Alexander of Australia and Simon Lessing of Great Britain.

There are also hundreds of amateurs, both individuals and relay team members, competing Sunday who will put their bodies to work to raise funds and awareness for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

"Boston is a town filled with fanatic sports fans. Triathlon is still a relatively new sport that has to be seen first-hand to truly understand what a true test of the human body and spirit it really is," says Dave McGillivray, race director of the Monster Challenge: Tri-Boston and BAA Boston Marathon. "We encourage everyone to come out on Sept. 1 and provide emotional fuel to get these athletes across the finish line."

Among those competing in this important fund-raiser are relay teams of local celebrities; EMS Teams from Boston and New York; members of the Boston Breakers soccer team, part of the eight- team Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA); and HIV positive athletes who want to show others that maintaining health and fitness is possible, even with an HIV diagnosis.

For more information, go to the race web site at www.triboston.com.