PIGG POWER DOMINATES HERITAGE TRIATHLON
MIKE CLAIMS $7,000 FIRST PRIZE

Long before the first Heritage International Triathlon was finished, the race was, well, finished. Mike Pigg, the superstar of swim, bike and run from Arcada, Calif., was in third place as he emerged from the choppy, cold waters of Utah Lake, and there was little doubt that Monday's race was his to lose, even with 28.7 miles of cycling and 7.2 miles of running still ahead.

When Pigg's father, Erv - the man in the PIGG POWER hat and T-shirt - saw his son jog out of the water, he nudged his wife and said, "Send the check to Arcada."Pigg, the best biker on the triathlon circuit - a man who has "revolutionized cycling" in the sport, according to one expert - need only be close to the lead swimmers to catch them with a bike. On this day he did just that. Five miles into the bike race he took the lead from Australia's Rick Wells and never surrendered it. By the time he reached BYU's Cougar Stadium for the start of the run, he had opened a 21/2-minute lead over his chief challenger, Scott Molina.

"He just went on the bike and it was over," said Molina. "It was the same thing. The guy rides in a frenzy."

And so Pigg claimed the $7,000 first prize, clocking 2:13:46, which left him just 26 seconds ahead of a charging Molina. Such scenarios are getting to be a habit. Pigg, 24, has won nine of his last 10 triathlons, including six in a row.

"There are four months left (n the triathlon season)," said Molina. "I've got to start closing the gap."

As Molina was saying this, the first woman crossed the finish line and, surprise, it was not New Zealand's Erin Baker or Denver's Kirsten Hanssen. It was Canada's Sylviane Puntous, who pulled away from Baker in the last two miles of the race to claim her third win of the year, also worth $7,000, with a time of 2:26:31. Baker settled for second, in 2:26:55, Cannon third and Puntous' identical twin sister, Patricia, was fourth.

They were no small victories for Pigg and Puntous. As Jerry McNeil, a freelance triathlete writer and race commentator, noted, "This is the best triathlon field assembled this year." The reason was simple: money.

Heritage put up nearly $82,000 in prize money, which was enough to attract the best of the triathlon world, some from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, Brazil and Hawaii. That notwithstanding, the race was short on quantity, if not quality. Only 500 entered the race - far short of race officials' predictions of between 800 to 1,200 - but that only made it easier to make money. One in five participants earned cash (here were cash awards five deep in all age divisions, starting at $700); the average payout was about $820.