Filip Ospaly and Sarah Haskins win the 2011 St. Anthony’s Triathlon.

Published May 1, 2011 02:15PM

The St. Anthony’s triathlon has been a landmark Olympic distance race for years, but this year it switched from an independent to part of WTC’s 5150 series. Although the logos are slightly different this year, the quality of the field hasn’t changed and many of the best non-drafting short-coursers in the country, and a few from abroad, showed up in south Florida to race for prize money and points in the 5150 standings, with the hope of qualifying for the 2011 Hy-Vee 5150 US Championship later this summer.

The bay was surprisingly warm this year, so the athletes swam without wetsuits, and the swim was shortened by 500m due to wind and waves.

Filip Osplay and Sarah Haskins both beat strong fields to win the 2011 St. Anthony’s Triathlon-5150.

Cameron Dye authoritatively stamped last years race, leading from the swim to the finish line, and announced that he is ready to compete with the best. This year, Dye emerged from the swim 15 seconds behind Andy Potts, but chased the former Olympian and took the lead in the first few miles of the bike. Dye had the fastest bike split of the day, averaging over 27mph, and came into T2 with a lead of slightly more than a minute over Potts, Filip Osplay, Matt Reed, Kris Gemmell, and Bevan Docherty.

The strong swim biker knew he would need a substantial lead at the start of the run, because a pack of Olympians would be chasing him on the run. Dye ran 33:11, but it wasn’t fast enough to replicate his win from last year.

Filip Osplay of the Czech Republic and Matt Reed of the USA pulled away from the rest of the runners and eventually reeled in Dye. Reed attempted to get away from Osplay, but wasn’t able to drop the Czech. Osplay pulled away from Reed to finish his 30:54 10k run, fastest on the day, and win the 2011 St. Anthony’s Triathlon. Reed crossed in second and Dye hung on for 3^rd. Despite incredible race resumes, Bevan Docherty and Andy Potts didn’t factor into the race for 1st.

Sarah Groff, Sarah Haskins and Liz Blatchford broke away from the rest of the swimmers, and completed the shortened swim within footsteps of each other. They started the bike together, but Sarah Haskins broke the other two on the bike and earned a full minute over her closest chasers. Blatchford and Groff stayed close together though the flat but twisty 40k ride, and Alicia Kaye clawed her way back toward the pair. With Haskins clear up the road, Kaye, Groff and Blatchford started the run within sight of each other. It would have taken a spectacular run to catch the ITU star, but no one had the legs to catch Haskins. She has been struggling with injury over the past year, and this win proves that she is back on track heading into the Olympic qualifying season.

Blatchford pulled away from Groff to take second. Following Groff, Laurel Wassner turned in the day’s 3^rd fastest run to earn 4^th. 2010 USAT Collegiate National Champion Nicole Kelleher continues to improve and prove that she will soon be a force in the pro field by finishing 5^th.