The early-morning winds created choppy water, and rather than take a risk with several hundreds swimmers diving into the high waves, organizers opted to double up the run portion of the race and make it a run, bike and run event.

Heath Thurston won the men's Olympic distance race, covering the 10k run, 20k bike and 10k run race with a time of 1:46:37. Weston Woodward was second, at 1:47:14, while Randy Olsen was hot on his heels at 1:47:27.

Cherell Jordin took top honors in the women's race, at 2:00:31, with Kara Bankhead (2:01:06) and Sue Pope (2:06:20 rounding out the podium.

In the sprint distance race, Bruce Balch finished the race in 1:12:49, easily outpacing Mike Olsen's 1:14:28 time.

Utah triathletes will get another shot to test themselves in coming weeks. The Women of Steel Triathlon is this weekend in American Fork and is a sold-out, women-only event.

Those who ended up disappointed with the wind-hampered St. George triathlon will get another chance on May 23, at the Stansbury Triathlon in Tooele County.

E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com