Courtesy: USAT

Six of the top 10 U.S. women and eight of the top 10 U.S. men are in New York City this weekend, along with a host of other U.S. elite triathletes, for Sunday's 2002 USA Triathlon Elite Triathlon National Championship.

The race will be part of the New York City Triathlon, which has been filled with excited New York area age group triathletes.

"We are very pleased and excited to be returning to New York for the USA Triathlon Elite National Championship and the Second Annual New York City Triathlon," said USA Triathlon Executive Director Steve Locke. "USA Triathlon and its top athletes want to show support for the city and for its bid for the 2012 Olympics. New York is a first-class city and we look forward to a first-class triathlon."

U.S. No. 1 Hunter Kemper (Longwood, Fla.), who won the championship in New York last year, leads the men's start list, which also includes No. 2 Joe Umphenour (Belleview, Wash.) and No. 3 Brian Fleischmann (Jacksonville, Fla.), who finished second last year.

The women's start list includes U.S. No. 2 Barb Lindquist (Victor, Idaho), who finished second in New York last year, No. 3 Laura Reback (North Palm Beach, Fla.) and No. 4 Sheila Taormina (Livonia, Mich.), a member of the 2000 Olympic team who won a gold medal in swimming at the Atlanta Games.

Also on the women's start list is U.S. No. 21 Karen Smyers (Lincoln, Mass.), who won the U.S. title last year at the age of 39 and who has won her last two races.

The New York City course is one of the most exciting in triathlon. The athletes will plunge into the Hudson River at 100th St. in Riverside Park and will swim 1.5K to the 79th St. Boat Basin. Officials have determined that water quality in the harbor is better than at any time since the early 1900s, and that the current will be negligible.

After emerging from the water, the athletes will run to their bicycles and race a 40K course heading north on the Henry Hudson Parkway, up to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, back south on the Parkway to 59th St., then turning north again.

The athletes will return to Riverside Park for the second transition and run a 10K that will cross 72nd St. into Central Park and include a loop around the park before finishing by the band shell near 72nd St.

At the conclusion of the race, the awards ceremony and Ford Finish Line Festival will start with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, especially those who were triathletes.