Osborne, Paterson Win XTERRA Pan American Championship
Press Release / 09.09.2019
Sam Osborne from New Zealand and Lesley Paterson from Scotland captured the XTERRA Pan American Championship off-road triathlon elite titles on a beautiful day at Snowbasin Resort near Ogden, Utah on Saturday, September 7, 2019.
It's the sixth XTERRA World Tour win of the season for Osborne, and for Paterson, her third straight victory at the Pan Am Champs in Utah.
The race combined a 1.5-kilometer swim in Pineview Reservoir with a gruelling 30-kilometer mountain bike and tough 10K trail run. As the culmination of a 10-stop series of off-road triathlons spanning South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada, and the U.S., and with $80,000 in prize money at stake for elites, the stage was set for XTERRA’s best to show what they can do.
In the men’s elite race, Osborne was first out of the water, followed closely by Canadian Karsten Madsen, and Americans Branden Rakita, Brad Zoller, and Mike Meehan. Osborne set the pace early on the bike, but Madsen was charging hard and just six seconds back at the four-mile mark after the first big climb.
By mile eight, the roles were reversed, and Madsen was up front with Osborne on his wheel, while 20-year-old Australian Dean Cane moved his way up to third just 20-seconds back. When the course started to climb up to the 7,300-foot mark at the top of Sardine Peak, Cane made a big move and pulled into the lead and ultimately posted the fastest bike split of the day in 1:26:21.
“Dean was actually the guy that led up on the climb,” said Osborne. “He’s a young guy but that was a clever move and he’s obviously done some mountain bike racing. It took me a little bit to get around Karsten to try to close the gap halfway up that climb and Dean was riding really strong. I got across to him just before the top.”
The two came down the hill and into transition tire-to-tire but Osborne bolted out of transition and pulled away from Cane immediately and put nearly two-minutes on him in the first mile of the run. He went on to post the second-best run and took the tape in 2:28:38, more than three minutes ahead of Madsen in second.
Rakita finished third, followed by Meehan in fourth and Brian Smith in fifth.
Elite Men's Results
| Place | Name, NAT | Time | Points |
| 1 | Sam Osborne, NZL | 2:28:38 | 100 |
| 2 | Karsten Madsen, CAN | 2:32:06 | 90 |
| 3 | Branden Rakita, USA | 2:34:23 | 82 |
| 4 | Mike Meehan, USA | 2:36:19 | 75 |
| 5 | Brian Smith, USA | 2:37:15 | 69 |
| 6 | Chad Hall, USA | 2:37:43 | 63 |
| 7 | Dean Cane, AUS | 2:41:02 | 58 |
| 8 | Ryan Ignatz, USA | 2:42:18 | 53 |
| 9 | Trevor Wurtele, CAN | 2:44:07 | 49 |
| 10 | Evan Pardi | 2:45:14 | 45 |
| 11 | Brad Zoller, USA | 2:46:28 | 41 |
| 12 | Nelson Hegg, USA | 2:48:20 | 37 |
| 13 | Benny Smith, USA | 2:48:46 | 34 |
| 14 | Will Ross, USA | 2:50:46 | 31 |
| 15 | Andy Lee, USA | 2:53:38 | 28 |
Also Alex Willis, Barret Fishner
In the women’s elite race, Samantha Kingsford from New Zealand posted the fastest swim of the day, followed one-minute later by Fabiola Corona from Mexico and Suzie Snyder from the U.S.
The Kiwi went on to record the quickest bike time as well and took a big lead on to the run, but it wasn’t enough to hold back Paterson, the three-time XTERRA World Champion from Scotland, who ran four minutes faster and took the tape in 2:55:10.
“I’ve had some pretty good running legs lately,” said Paterson. “I’ve always come into this race with a lot of durability because of how I phase it with Maui. I don’t have the top hand speed, but I have the strength and I think that showed on the run.”
Kingsford held on for second, with Corona in third, and Americans Julie Baker and Suzie Snyder in fourth and fifth.
Elite Women's Results
| Place | Name, NAT | Time | Points |
| 1 | Lesley Paterson, GBR | 2:55:10 | 100 |
| 2 | Samantha Kingsford, NZL | 2:56:48 | 90 |
| 3 | Fabiola Corona, MEX | 3:04:03 | 82 |
| 4 | Julie Baker, USA | 3:04:32 | 75 |
| 5 | Suzie Snyder, USA | 3:05:05 | 69 |
| 6 | Maia Ignatz, USA | 3:05:20 | 63 |
| 7 | Heather Wurtele, CAN | 3:07:48 | 58 |
| 8 | Kara LaPoint, USA | 3:09:21 | 53 |
| 9 | Jennifer Smith, NZL | 3:15:49 | 49 |
| 10 | Marta Menditto, ITA | 3:17:26 | 45 |
| 11 | Katie Button, CAN | 3:19:16 | 41 |
| 12 | Nicole Valentine, USA | 3:20:16 | 37 |
| 13 | Kelli Montgomery, USA | 3:25:42 | 34 |
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With the win and second-place showing today, Sam Osborne and Samantha Kingsford captured the 2019 XTERRA Pan American Tour titles.
“It’s crazy. We set this goal way back in December before we even had our visas sorted, and now we’re here in Ogden with the titles,” said Osborne. “I don’t know if we could ask for a better season. I really love this Pan Am Tour. You have the mountains here in Ogden and the rocks in Victoria, which were insane, and the single track in ‘Bama, and the crazy jungle in Brazil. It’s crazy this tour, and it shows what a consistent and well-balanced athlete you need to be to perform during the season.”
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