Chris Kemp wins Carlsbad Triathlon in the USA

Chris Kemp has been focusing his training on Vineman 70.3 which is on this upcoming weekend but decided to have a hit out in the lead up that would not affect his prepartion. In doing so he added another title to his name.

Kemp only decided to enter the Carlsbad Triathlon about two weeks before the event was held after his flat-mate, Chris Fetter (in his own right a great age group triathlete), mentioned the race to him. “I had a look at some of the past results and history of the race and there was a lot of Aussie winners with some great names taking out the event. I have been training hard for the Vineman 70.3 and a sprint race at Carlsbad (1km / 25km / 5km) seemed like a great hit out one week out from the 70.3 event, so off we went.”

Kemp has raced in two 70.3 triathlons this year. Port Macquarie in Australia where he finsihed 4th behind Joe Gambles, Tim Berkel and New Zealand’s Cameron Brown. In Singapore 70.3 he ran 7th. In this race Kiwi ITU specialist Kris Gemmell took out the race ahead of the soon to be 2011 Ironman Australia champ Pete Jacobs. Both of these races were not goal races for Kemp. Instead he was working on getting his nutrition right and also coming back after suffering a debilitating foot injury last year.

The weather at Carlsbad was perfect with the swim in the ocean swim with a solid 4-5 foot swell running on the beach which suited Chris perfectly. “When the gun went off I had a great start, I got through the break without a major issue and found myself in 2nd at the turn can about 250m off the beach, and right where I wanted to be, on the leaders feet. After a short distance I felt really good in the water and took the lead for the rest of the swim along the back of the break. Swim training over here has been going really well, so it was nice to really have a go. I kept swimming and once I was well inside the break a few waves started to come through and I was not able to pick up on the broken white wash. I was second to the shore as Erik Nau caught a great wave to the beach.”

Kemp managed to put a good gap on the rest of the pro field exiting T1 in second place. “I was able to ride up to Erik by about the 5km mark on the bike. We rode together for the rest of the 25km without incident with Lewis Elliot (last year’s winner and race record holder) catching us with about 2 km to go on the bike. The three of us entered T2 together with a good lead on the rest of the field. I didn’t have a great transition onto the run and found myself out 3rd roughly 20-30m behind the other 2 guys.”

Over the last couple of weeks Kemp has been able to do a lot of solid riding, which enabled him to ride well within himself on the bike, leaving him feeling very good for the run. “I was able to run straight past Erik and up to Lewis without too much trouble. Lewis and I ran together for about 1 km, at which point I felt that I was feeling the better of the two of us. I put in a good surge on the only hill on the course and was able to get a small gap on Lewis at this stage. I ran hard from there until about 500m to the finish line where I was able to finally ease up and enjoy the win. Lewis Elliot finished second and Erik Nau was third.”

Kemp has only been in the USA for a few weeks and is finding he is feeling stronger with the quality training he has been able to acheive. “This event, although it didn’t have a deep pro field served as a great hit out for Vineman 70.3 next week where there is a truly amazing pro field assembled. I am very much looking forward to having a great race there against some of the best guys in the world. I will certainly have to step up another level next week if I am to be competitive but I feel as though I am in good shape and have given myself every chance to be in the mix.”