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By ROBERT MINER Times Leader Correspondent
Monday, June 20, 2005 Page: 1B
WILKES-BARRE – John Troy Owens and Laura Nappa scored wins in the second
annual Wilkes-Barre Duathlon on Sunday. The event – sponsored by the
Wilkes-Barre YMCA and the Jewish Community Center of Wyoming Valley – features
a 3-mile run, a 16.9-mile bike and another 3-mile run.
Owens, 26, of Nanticoke, led a field of 169 duathletes, finishing in one
hour, 15 minutes and 17 seconds. Sean Robbins, 35, of Shavertown, finished
second, 32 seconds behind Owens. Ryan Stevens, 22, of Drums, finished third in
1:17:07.
“I had about a 45-second lead over Sean when we reached the first
transition (end of the first run near the Market Street Bridge where the
duathletes jump on their bikes and head towards Public Square and then onto
the Hanover Industrial Estates Park),” said Owens. “I knew Sean was a good
biker – strong. So I stayed patient, road my own race and just tried to gain
time on those behind me.”
Robbins took over the lead early in the bike race. But Owens made his move
and passed Robbins for good over a flat area of the industrial park somewhere
between the fifth and sixth mile of the bike course. At the next transition,
Owens had about a one-minute lead over Robbins.
“I actually toned it down a little bit, thinking that he would fall apart,”
said Robbins. “But he didn’t – he held it together.”
Owens recently qualified for an upcoming Ironman competition in Hawaii.
Nappa, a 27-year-old from Baltimore, Md., won the female division easily in
1:26:32.
Bonnie Stoecki, 49, of Pequea, placed second in 1:34:21, and Monica
Obsitos, of Larksville, a recent graduate of Wyoming Valley West High School,
finished third, just 20 seconds behind Stoecki. Obsitos bettered her time from
last year’s inaugural running of the event by about four minutes.
Nappa said the bike course was pretty tough. But she liked the run course a
lot.
“There are quite a few hills in that industrial park,” she said. “But the
run course was very nice.”
Nappa wasn’t pressured by another female throughout the race. Yet there was
one point during the race, when she wasn’t quite sure about winning.
“I saw the second-place female at the turnaround,” she said. “I had a good
lead on her. But she worried me a bit. She made me push just a little harder.”
Last year Nappa won the Tri America Hampton triathlon in Hampton, Va. And
she finished second in her age group in last year’s Wilkes-Barre Triathlon.
First-place finishers in both the men’s and women’s divisions won $100 and
a trophy; second-place finishers won $75 and a trophy; and third-place
finishers, $50 and a trophy.