Looks like Sean Jefferson, formerly of IU and OTC, has turned to triathlon. He finished 2nd overall in the National age group championship this past weekend, but with abnormal swim conditions. He would have likely won in normal conditions. Guess that tells you a bit about the quality of triathlon in the US, when a guy can come in and do so well after 1 season of triathlon.
I'll bet a benjamin that he's done some swimming in his youth, probably some cycling too. If you have the skills, and you have the conditioning, you can do well.
Alan
You do realize that the US Age Group Championships is an amateur only event don't you? Jefferson's placing at this race, while impressive, is not really all that different than Jarod Shoemakers win at the BAA Mayor Cup XC race a couple of years back. An elite from one sport mixing it up with the near elite from another. Neither Jefferson's or Shoemakers races say all that much about the performance of the top US professionals in either triathlon or track/XC.
Sean grew up in Boca, and if there is one thing i can tell you after racing Tri's in Boca for a year now is: kids start racing Tri's VERY early. he's a very good swimmer and solid cyclist. Obviously the run is a strong suit for a runner.
Age group nationals are a very good competition, and many of the best amateur racers in the country go. However, this isn't something where sponsors are picking up travel expenses and such. The competitors have to travel there on their own dime, making this a very expensive race. From Florida alone, I can think of more than a dozen racers that qualified and didn't go. Two of the best 35-39 age groupers in the country are from FL and they didn't go. And the race was only in Alabama. Not taking away from John's race, as there aren't many people in the country that could have beaten him that day, but there are lots of racers that didn't go, thus diluting the field.
Then throw in anyone with their pro license. And that's at least another 45 people at least that can throw down on the amateur ranks.
Usually, the top finishers at USAT Nationals end up turning pro and doing ok. On the flip side, I doubt there are 45 "pros" who can throw down on the amateurs. There are a ton of weak pros.
funny wrote:
Sean grew up in Boca, and if there is one thing i can tell you after racing Tri's in Boca for a year now is: kids start racing Tri's VERY early. he's a very good swimmer and solid cyclist. Obviously the run is a strong suit for a runner.
Age group nationals are a very good competition, and many of the best amateur racers in the country go. However, this isn't something where sponsors are picking up travel expenses and such. The competitors have to travel there on their own dime, making this a very expensive race. From Florida alone, I can think of more than a dozen racers that qualified and didn't go. Two of the best 35-39 age groupers in the country are from FL and they didn't go. And the race was only in Alabama. Not taking away from John's race, as there aren't many people in the country that could have beaten him that day, but there are lots of racers that didn't go, thus diluting the field.
Then throw in anyone with their pro license. And that's at least another 45 people at least that can throw down on the amateur ranks.
Steve "The Cheetah" Griffith is a Boca legend.
Don't get too excited, it was only age group nationals. The pro's in the regular nationals beat him by almost 10 minutes. It's just like getting second in club cross nationals versus actual cross nationals.
Just Club Nationals:
PL PTS FINISHER TIME TEAM USATF ASSOCIATION
1 Alan Webb, 21, Fairfax, VA 30:13.1 Nike
2 Daniel Lincoln, 23, Fayetteville, AR 30:13.4
another year:
PLACE SCORE FINISHER TIME PACE TEAM
1 Matt Tegenkamp, 23, Madison, WI 29:47 4:48 Nike
2 Fernando Cabada, 23, Bristol, VA 29:50 4:48
another year:
2. Adam Goucher
second place at Club Nationals not zackly a cake walk.
sedond not always that easy.
Alan Webb has a swimming background, doesn't he? He should be able to rock the triathlon circuit.
Alan grew up in Reston, VA, and if there is one thing i can tell you after racing Tri's in Reston for a year now is: kids start racing Tri's VERY early. he's a very good swimmer and solid cyclist. Obviously the run is a strong suit for a runner.
Age group nationals are a very good competition, and many of the best amateur racers in the country go. However, this isn't something where sponsors are picking up travel expenses and such. The competitors have to travel there on their own dime, making this a very expensive race. From Virginia alone, I can think of more than a dozen racers that qualified and didn't go. Two of the best 35-39 age groupers in the country are from VA and they didn't go. And the race was only in Alabama. Not taking away from John's race, as there aren't many people in the country that could have beaten him that day, but there are lots of racers that didn't go, thus diluting the field.
Then throw in anyone with their pro license. And that's at least another 45 people at least that can throw down on the amateur ranks.
Nut Doctor wrote:
Alan Webb has a swimming background, doesn't he? He should be able to rock the triathlon circuit.
I think in Sub-4 they mentioned Webb just missing out on a
national qualifying time in swimming, which caused him to not be able to compete in two sports at once, thus causing him to choose running full-time and give up swimming. The details are kind of fuzzy, but something like that definitely happened.
Ummm, the pro's swam a different course AND more importantly, had a draft legal bike race. Duh.
The pro's had a different course and a draft legal race (you should know that that already makes a difference).
The amature race had a strong current against the swimmers for 800m because a neighboring town opened up a dam to prevent flooding due to heavy rain the previous days.
Race officials requested the dam to be closed in time for the pro race to be unaffected by the current. You can't compare the time of the Pro race to the amature one.
I'm not saying sean could jump into a pro race now and win, but you should inform yourself a little more before making negative judgemental comments in public.
Jefferson's mom was an All-American swimmer in college. Taught her boys well.
Yea she was, but Sean isn't a swimmer...yet.
Well really didn't we all start out as great swimmers?
I was in the race, placed top 10, and can definitely say that he has a future on the pro circuit. I consider myself a good runner for amateur triathlon, and he went by me like I was standing still. First of all, he is a good swimmer, not great, but if has only been swimming one year he could perhaps become an ITU level swimmer. He swam 26 at this race, which correlates to around 19minutes in a wetsuit legal 1500m without a current. Also, this race had almost all the best amateurs in the country racing. In fact, this may have been the fastest age group nationals ever. He could turn pro and be beating many of the pros within a year. The elite race is a completely different racing format. The swim course was different, the bike was draft legal loops, and the run course was different as well.
Agree. While his swim time must quite a bit slower than Maloy, the 3rd place OA guy Palmer is a pretty damn strong swimmer. If his swim does improve he could go the ITU route. His real "weakness" right now is his biking, which honestly will just get better and better as he gets some more saddle time in.
Sean finished 8th at the world duathlon championships in edinburgh over labor day. by 2012 he'll be a legitimate contender for london.
http://www.triathlon.org/results/results/2010_edinburgh_itu_duathlon_world_championships/4971/
Yeah he's done really well with Duathlon. The bike course in Scotland was really really tough though, which won't be the case very often in ITU triathlons.
He still has to work on his swim though to make the pack before the Olympics are a possibility.
At Coteau du loc he missed the pack with another very solid runner, Kaleb VanOrt (28:50 guy from ND, all american in xc), and finished in the middle of the pack.
If those guys learn to swim, and they've been improving, the US might actually have guys that can run with the top triathletes in the world.