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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 8:04 a.m., Thursday, February 1, 2007

XTERRA championships to be featured on CBS

Advertiser Staff

The XTERRA World Championship, an off-road triathlon held annually in Maui, will be the focus of a one-hour CBS Sports Spectacular television broadcast on Saturday, Feb. 3, 8 a.m. Hawaii time.

Filmed on location at the Maui Prince Hotel in Makena on Oct. 29, 2006, the broadcast tracks more than 500 professional and amateur athletes ages 15 to 70 from 24 countries and 36 states as they tackle a one-mile ocean swim, 20-mile mountain bike and seven-mile trail run.

"The show highlights a guy who had to run the last part of the race barefoot because his shoes cut and blistered his feet, a gal who rode more than half the bike on her bare rear rim (after flatting four times), men's 65 and over champion John Stover completing the race despite breaking his wrist early in the bike, and Wendy Minor winning her record sixth age group title," said CBS Producer Ross Schneiderman. "In general, I think "purists" will enjoy it because we show more competition than in previous years."

Hamish Carter from New Zealand, winner of the Olympic triathlon gold medal in '04, captured the men's title while Melanie McQuaid of Canada won her unprecedented third XTERRA World Championship.

The top Hawaii finisher (out of 56) was Jeff Sanders from Lahaina, who placed 43rd overall in 3:13:57. Ingrid Rolles from Honolulu was the top local female, placing 12th among women in 3:33:48. Wendy Minor, 61, from Honolulu won her age group (60-over) for an unprecedented sixth time.