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Newcastle, Australia: 23 September 2005: Newcastle, Australia, located 170km north of Sydney is a-buzz with hundreds of Duathletes from over 35 countries for this weekend’s ITU Duathlon World Championships. 

The Newcastle ITU Duathlon World Championships will kick off with the Age Group Duathlon World Championships on Saturday, 24th September and the Elite, Junior and Under 23 men and women competing on Sunday 25 September. 

The elite women’s race starts at 8:30 a.m. Australia time with the elite men’s race 2 and a half hours later.

The 10km run, 40km cycle and final 5km run event will be staged on the dramatic beaches of Newcastle, home of Australia’s largest working harbour.

In the women’s elite competition the trio on top of the Duathlon World will be on the start line.  World #1 Annie Emmerson of Great Britain, Hungary’s #2 Erika Csomor and #3 Caroline Kloiber of Great Britain are all going head to head.

The men’s event features Benny Vansteelant of Belgium, the perennial favourite, and with a win at the Barcis, Italy Duathlon World Cup, is an odds on favourite to take home another world title.  Anthony Leduey of France, the winner of the Corner Brook Duathlon World Cup is sitting in 2nd place going into the Newcastle World Championships and is another favourite, as is Jurgen Dereere of Belgium, the current Duathlon European Champion.

The other interesting thing about the Newcastle ITU Duathlon World Championships is the number of world class Triathletes who feature on the start list. 

Triathlon World Cup leaders such as Great Britain’s Michelle Dillon, Andrea Whitcombe, Catriona Morrison, as well as Laura Bennett of the USA, Nadia Cortassa of Italy and Vendula Frentova of the Czech Republic will put the Duathlon specialists to the test.

On the men’s side, Triathlon World Ranked #2 Tim Don of Great Britain has one Duathlon World Championships to his credits (2002).  Other Triathlon World Cup specialists on the start line include Australia’s Craig Alexander, Greg Bennett and Nick Horman, as well as Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic and Paul Amey of Great Britain.
Click here to go the Newcastle event page.
Start lists are available on the race website by clicking here.

Please visit www.triathlon.org for all the event details, start lists and pre-event stories.  Lived coverage of the event will be featured on www.triathlon.org and results will be posted on the website as soon as possible after the event.