Hunter Kemper battled back from an illness and through steaming heat to become the first American male to win the Life Time Fitness Triathlon on Saturday.
Finishing in 1 hour, 49 minutes, 45.1 seconds, Kemper held off Ukraine's Volodymyr Polikarpenko by 12.6 seconds to win the US$200,000 grand prize, which includes a US$30,000 2006 sport utility vehicle.
"You've got to say this is my greatest victory," Kemper said. "Before this it was probably the Pan-American Games gold medal in 2003. Any time you win a gold medal for your country it's huge, but to win this kind of money, it's ridiculous."
New Zealander Hamish Carter finished third in 1:50:03.0.
Australian Emma Snowsill successfully defended her women's title in 2:00:34.9 and won US$80,000.
"Probably about five, [6km] into the run I really struggled, but I really didn't have anything all day from the moment we got going," Snowsill said. "I just had no strength, no go about me. You hate those days. You don't mind them in training, you can deal with them, but race days it's a pain in the butt."
American Sara McLarty led the race out of the water as she finished the 1.5km swim in 18:17. But Australian Courtney Atkinson took over the lead following the 40K bike portion of the race, leading American Becky Lavelle by only a few seconds.
Lavelle finished second overall, and Samantha McGlone of Canada third.
Kemper and fellow American David Thompson were the first two men off their bikes. Thompson was in last place out of the water, but passed the entire men's field during the bike race.
"I was disappointed in my swim, so figured I would give it a whirl and give it all I could on the bike," Thompson said.
But Thompson could not keep pace with Kemper and eventually finished 14th.
Kemper said afterward that his sickness last week forced him to taper his training, which eventually benefited him on Saturday.
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