November 13, 2006 (Henderson, Nevada) – On Sunday, November 12, the Las Vegas Silverman Nevada Full Distance Triathlon was running well into the night but the battle for a sub 8-hour finish by a group of pro relay teams had long past. The sub 8-hour mark has never been achieved by a relay team in a full distance triathlon and it remains the holy grail of this exciting and young discipline.

According to top Ironman competitor, Dave Scott, the Silverman is one of the toughest Tri courses in the world, throwing over 9,000 feet of climbing at cyclists but a $100 thousand dollar prize purse attracted some big names to take on the sub-8 challenge, including team www.athleteslawyer.com, consisting of swimmer Scott Kaufman, pro cyclist Tyler Hamilton, and runner Ernest Kineli, and team Inside-Out sports, made up of Erik Bean, Mark Warkentin, and Everton Morais.

Both teams gave it a valiant effort with finishing times of 8:17:42 and 8:17:12, team Inside-Out sports beating out the favourites by only 30 seconds. Conditions were incredibly harsh with winds gusting up to 40 km/hr and had to play a factor in denying both teams the sub-8 time but Hamiton’s team also had the misfortune of having Ernest Kineli collapse from dehydration only 4 miles from the finish line.

Hamiton pointed out that, “Kineli has never competed in anything but half marathons and may have miscalculated his pace but in all fairness he had an incredible time and after he collapsed he got up and finished the race.”

Hamiton and swimmer Scott Kaufman also had blistering times of 4hrs 33 minutes and 44 minutes respectively, even with the gail force winds! Hamilton said the only thing that came close to his 180 mile time trial effort at the Silverman Tri was his stage 16 Tour de France win in 2003 when he went on a 90-km-plus solo break from Pau to Bayonne. Hamilton added, “the toughest part of the ride psychologically was the 10 miles before the turn around point and the 10 miles after, a zone infamous to veteran triathletes”.

Both Hamiton’s team and members of first place team Inside-Out sports said the $100 thousand prize purse was definitely a draw but they would be happy to return to Silverman even without a prize. Hamiton even went on to say that team triathlons should really be an Olympic event, something Silverman founder, Frank Lowery agreed with and said he would get to work on right away!