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Stoltz, McQuaid win ITU Cross Tri Titles

The man and woman with the most XTERRA World Championships - Conrad Stoltz with four and Melanie McQuaid with three - appropriately became the first man and woman to win an ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship.

On Saturday in Spain, Stoltz and McQuaid put their stamp of excellence on the inaugural ITU event at “The Ring” in Extremadura, an International Innovation Centre for outdoor sports in “El Anillo” (Caceres).

Stoltz (pictured courtesy JACVAN-TRIHEBDO) crushed the bike with a 50-minute split that was three minutes faster than that of runner-up Seth Wealing, and held on during the run for a winning time of 1:26:40.  Wealing was second in 1:27:36, followed by Olivier Marceau (1:29:43), Josiah Middaugh (1:30:27), and Richard Stannard (1:31:04).  Also of note, 3x XTERRA World Champ Eneko Llanos placed sixth, Branden Rakita eighth, Craig Evans 10th, Brian Smith 13th, and Cody Waite 15th.

Both the men's and women's elite fields were dominated by regular XTERRA racers from the America and European Tours, none of whom seemed to have a problem adjusting to the exceptionally fast course that combined a 1km swim, with a  20km mountain bike and 6km run.

The women's race was a lot tighter with just 41 seconds separating the top three (pictured above courtesy JACVAN-TRIHEBDO).  McQuaid finished in 1:43:02, followed by Shonny Vanlandingham - who had the best bike split and second best run split - in 1:43:25, then Emma Garrard in 1:43:43.

Christine Jeffrey was fourth, and XTERRA European Tour Champion Marion Lorblanchet was fifth.  Also of note, Renata Bucher was 7th, Suzie Snyder 13th, and Sara Tarkington 17th.

In the age group race American Kristin Jo Markum (25-29, Tumwater, Wash.) won the overall amateur women's title, while
Kathy Hudson (45-49, Highland Village, Texas), Beverly Enslow (50-54, Metamora, Ill.), Brent Peacock (50-54, Jackson, Wyo.) and Katherine Frank (60-64, Santa Cruz, Calif.) all won their respective divisions.

Find complete results for all races here.