BEIJING – An Olympic preview awaits this weekend as triathlon’s biggest names travel to Beijing for the 12th stop of the BG Triathlon World Cup series. 

The two-day event held in and around the Ming Tomb Reservoir, in the suburban Changping District, serves as a test event to examine preparations for the Olympic competition at next summer’s Beijing Games. The reservoir is 40km north of downtown Beijing.

Pressure will mount high for many athletes as the expectedly fierce competition provides a last chance for them to earn a spot on their respective national Olympic teams.  They have to prove they can perform well on the course designed for the Olympic Games. Specifically, athletes from the United States, Germany, Britain, New Zealand and Canada will be vying for Olympic berths.

The World Cup event is held just two weeks after the world championships in Hamburg, Germany. Like in Hamburg there is an impressive set of star-studded rosters in both the men’s and women’s fields. However, this time, there are about 170 athletes representing 38 countries and regions that will test the Olympic course for the first time.

On the men’s side, newly crowned world champion Daniel Unger from Germany will seek to pull off another massive upset. Although, Frenchman Frederic Belaubre has already been successful in Beijing in the past two years, taking the silver medal in 2005 and winning the title last year. American Hunter Kemper has been sidelined for much of this year due to injury but he’ll be looking to repeat his success in the 2005 Beijing World Cup.

World number one Javier Gomez of Spain had a possible first world title slip out of his hands in Hamburg and this time he will be all the more eager to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

On the women’s side, world champion Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal   will be the odds-on favorite to win the Beijing race for the third straight year. The world number one has won every race she’s entered since a third place finish, earlier this year, in Mooloolaba, Australia. But watch for her Australian rival Emma Snowsill, who was runner-up to Fernandes last year in Beijing. Snowsill will once again be aiming to best Fernandes. And, Snowsill’s compatriot Emma Moffatt can’t be overlooked. She comes to Beijing ranked world number two during her breakthrough season.

The event kicks off with the athletes diving off a pontoon; they will then swim one lap in the Ming Tomb Reservoir. The first buoy is 525 meters away from the pontoon and the water temperature is expected to be above 20 degrees Celsius. After that, athletes will bike six laps of 6.6 kilometers on a somewhat hilly terrain as part of the technical course. They will then have to tackle uphill laps of 2.5 kilometers in the running section. This is the third consecutive ITU World Cup event held in Beijing. This year’s course is slightly different in length than the previous two years’.