PTO US Open in Dallas: Sebastian Kienle and Frederic Funk again

Three weeks before the IRONMAN World Championships in HAWAII (October 6th-8th), this weekend's final PTO race of the season is all about another $1 million in prize money. On Saturday and Sunday (September 17th/18th) the triathlon elite will meet for the US Open race in Dallas. From a German point of view, there are five contenders for the best positions: alongside SEBASTIAN KIENLE, FREDERIC FUNK and FLORIAN ANGERT, MIKA NOODT and JAN STRATMANN are also at the starting line.

The men's starting field

The men's race is led by PTO World No. 3 Magnus Ditlev (DEN), No. 4 Lionel Sanders (CAN), No. 5 Alistair Brownlee (GBR), No. 6 Daniel Baekkegard (DEN) and No. 7 Florian Angert (GER).

Overall, the field for the final PTO Tour men's race of the season spans 22 of the top 30 PTO world rankings and includes 12 different countries including seven from the USA, led by No. 11 Sam Long.

All male participants

The women's starting field

The women's race will feature a strong contingent of Americans led by PTO World No. 7 Taylor Knibb and supported by No. 15 Jackie Hering, No. 18 Jocelyn McCauley, No. 23 Sophie Watts, No. 37 Danielle Lewis and No. 56 Lesley Smith . They will compete against an outstanding line-up of international stars including PTO Canadian Open winner and runner-up Ashleigh Gentle of Australia, Paula Finlay of Canada and Kat Matthews, Holly Lawrence and Lucy Charles-Barclay of Great Britain. The women's race features 13 of the world's top 25 PTO triathletes in the world rankings.

All women participants

The race will take place on a specially designed track in Las Colinas, creating a stadium-like event where fans will see the athletes complete the 100km race up to 12 times (2km swim, 80km bike and 18km run ).

Regarding the field announcement, PTO CEO Sam Renouf said, “The PTO Tour is about celebrating the world's ultimate endurance athletes - triathletes - and giving them a global stage to perform on and a US$1 million prize fund dollars to win."

The $1 million PTO US Open prize pool is broken down as follows:

What is unique about triathlon, and the PTO Tour in particular, is that amateurs have the opportunity to watch and register to compete with the world's best triathletes. Either for a 25 km or 100 km triathlon.