Courtesy: press release

In his last push before the upcoming Ironman Florida, long- course professional triathlete Eric Roy (CAN) stormed this past Saturday's 2003 Emerald Coast Sprint Triathlon like any other late-season hurricane, sweeping his sixth win this season by more than two minutes.

Posting the fastest swim and cycle times overall, the Rocket exited the water more than a minute quicker than anyone else and kept the burners on until the 3.25-mile run course. 'I knew if I just ran smoothly, nobody would catch me," he said. "I just didn't want to fry my legs too bad or risk an injury this close to the biggest race of my season."

Despite swarms of jellyfish and enduring crosswinds on the bike course, Panama City Beach provided almost perfect race conditions, just as Roy hopes he'll find on Ironman race day. Having only recently arrived in Florida, the Ontario resident topped the second- and third-place finishers who were both Floridians, and he hopes the conditioning time in Florida will help him three weeks from now, too.

Roy is batting 1.000 this season, going six for six, including Montreal's iron-distance Esprit Triathlon (8:58:31) and two half- iron races as well. Highly focused, private training under race conditions could write his ticket to the top spot on the podium on November 8.

Eric is proud to represent his sponsors and highly recommends others race with their gear, too: Zipp Wheels, Rudy Project USA, Sportstats, Eclipse Bicycles, and Sugoi.

Emerald Coast Sprint Triathlon

Panama City Beach, Fla.
1 Eric Roy, Ottawa, Ont. 9:33 - 39:22/19:41/1:08:35

2 David Shearon, Panama City Beach, Fla. 11:41 - 40:25/18:55/1:11:00

3 Jeff Bowman, Tallahassee, Fla. 10:47 - 39:35/20:57/1:11:18