Potts, Haskins Top Field At Capital Of Texas Triathlon
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Potts, Haskins each earn $12,500 for winning the second event in the Race to the Toyota Cup.
Professional triathlete Andy Potts lives by the credo of be a leader, not a follower. That belief kept Potts on course Monday during the Capital of Texas Triathlon, and it certainly helped him to a victory in the event.
Potts, a former All-America swimmer for the University of Michigan and a 2004 Olympic triathlete, was among the leaders of the swim leg when a race volunteer on a jet ski misdirected other competitors at the turnaround buoy. The mistake caused those competitors to swim an extra 200 yards or so on the 1.5-kilometer course laid out in Lady Bird Lake.
However, Potts, who had studied the course on Sunday night, made a decision to turn right at the yellow buoy, as he had been instructed during the pre-race meeting. That move gained him valuable time on other top entrants and allowed him eventually to finish first in the Cap Tex Tri by 18 seconds, with a total time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 2 seconds.
Potts earned $12,500 for winning the second event in the Race to the Toyota Cup — a seven-triathlon national series that kicked off in Miami Beach, Fla., last month. Sarah Haskins, also of Colorado Springs, won the women’s race in the Toyota Cup competition, likewise pocketing $12,500. She has won the first two events in the 2011 series, which features the Olympic triathlon set-up of a 1.5K swim, a 40K bike leg and a closing 10K run.
“It was getting a little warm out there,” said Haskins, whose time was 1:59:35. “Especially on the run. I was thinking, ‘Please don’t let me have a meltdown.’ You never know what’s going to happen. You can be a mile from the finish and just have a meltdown.”
Read more: American-Statesman