TOP TRIATHLETES - SOME, ANYWAY - TO VIE

Some of the world's top triathletes will gather in Provo Saturday for the second running of the Heritage International Triathlon. On the other hand, some of the sport's big stars, in a funk over appearance fees, probably won't be there, as well.

A little more than 300 athletes will compete for an advertised $90,000 in prize money in Saturday's competition, which will begin at 8 a.m. at Utah Lake.The race will consist of a 1.2-mile swim in the lake (beginning and ending at the Provo Harbor), a 40-mile bike ride (via Springville, Spanish Fork and Mapleton) to Seven Peaks Resort in Provo, and a 10-mile footrace in the Provo foothills, beginning and ending at Seven Peaks.

Among the top entries are superstar Scott Molina, identical twins Sylviane (the women's defending champ) and Patricia Puntous, Erin Baker, Kirsten Hansen, Colleen Cannon, Todd Jacobs, Lisa Laiti and Utah's Robynn Masters.

Barring any 11th-hour changes, the likes of Dave Scott and defending Heritage champion Mike Pigg, among others, will be missing from Saturday's race. Which is strange treatment for one of the country's richest triathlons.

According to Suzanne Borcherds, the co-chairman of the Heritage race, several athletes have refused to commit to the race because, unlike a year ago, Heritage is not paying prize money.

"Last year we paid $25,000 in appearance money," says Borcherds. "We decided this year we weren't going to pay it." According to Borcherds, Scott wanted $10,000 to compete in the race.

Instead, Heritage is offering $90,000 in prize money - maybe; it could be considerably less than that. According to Borcherds, the offer of $90,000 was based on an anticipated field of 600 entries; so far, the race has a little more than 300 - about the size of last year's event - and race officials say the prize money will be adjusted accordingly.

"We have the option to prorate the prize money according to the size of the field," said one Heritage official.

Given the size of the field as it stands now, Borcherds says the first-place prize money - originally set at $7,000 for both the men's and women's winners - will be "$4,000 to $4,500."