Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, February 01, 2008

B.C. triathlon athlete Simon Whitfield, who has qualified for the men’s event at this summer’s Olympics in Beijing, will be aiming for a first world title when Vancouver plays host to the 2008 world championships June 6-8 at English Bay.

Whitfield, who was born in Kingston, Ont., and lives on Salt Spring Island, was a gold medallist in the triathlon at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. He qualified for the Beijing Games with a fourth-place finish in the 2007 world championships last September at Hamburg, Germany.

Vancouver’s Lauren Groves also qualified for Beijing by finishing 14th in Hamburg, and will join Whitfield as a participant in the Vancouver world championships.

Whitfield is aiming to become the first triathlete to win both Olympic and world championship gold medals. He will launch the Vancouver world championships on Monday during a news conference at the Empire Landmark Hotel.

Canada will send a team of three men and three women triathletes to Beijing, meaning that two more spots are up for grabs in both divisions. A top-eight finish in the Vancouver world championships automatically qualifies a Canadian triathlete for the Beijing Games.

The Vancouver world championships are the final Olympic qualifying races for the Beijing Games.

Whitfield won three triathlons in 2007, including the Vancouver World Cup test event, and finished the season ranked No. 2 in the world.

Daniel Unger of Germany is the defending men’s world champion and Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes in the defending women’s world champion.

More than 30 nations will be represented in the Vancouver world championships.