Myrtle Beach Plays Host To Club, Long Course Nationals

USA Triathlon’s 2010 national championship schedule will wrap up this weekend with the USA Triathlon Long Course and Club National Championships on Saturday in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Action begins at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, and a total of nearly 1,500 athletes are scheduled to compete over varying race distances.

“USA Triathlon has enjoyed record-setting numbers in many of our national championship events in 2010, and we are looking forward to another exciting event this weekend,” said Jeff Dyrek, USA Triathlon national events director. “USAT has worked in conjunction with Race Director Mark Livesay and the Ultramax team to put together what should be a first-class race experience.”

A full day of multisport action kicks off with the Long Course Nationals wave. In addition to having national titles on the line, these athletes will be competing for spots on Team USA for the 2011 International Triathlon Union (ITU) Long Distance World Championship, which will be contested in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nev.

Saturday’s event, which features a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike and a 13.1-mile run, is the sole qualifier for next year’s world championship event, which was last held on U.S. soil in 1996. The top 20 finishers in each age group will earn a coveted Team USA spot.

The club national titles will be decided by the finishes of competitors in the long course event, as well as Saturday’s aquabike, intermediate-distance and sprint-distance races. Nearly 60 clubs from across the nation have signed on to compete for championship titles in five divisions based on their membership size.

Tim Hola and Rochelle Hair captured last year’s overall long course national titles in Oklahoma City, Okla., and a trio of club champions from a year ago will look to defend their titles in Myrtle Beach. TRI-OKC was the 2009 Division I (250-plus members) champion, Northwest Arkansas Triathletes took home the Division III (80-129 members) crown and Full Throttle Endurance will look for a second straight Division IV (30-79 members) title.

Race preview provided by USA Triathlon