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Austrian triathlete making XTERRA Saipan debut
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Posted on Apr 16 2009
Ulli Katzer, a three-year veteran of the XTERRA World Championships, will make his XTERRA Saipan Championship debut tomorrow and he is excited about it.
“I’m glad to be here. I heard that Saipan is the best in all XTERRA races,” said the 42-year old native of Graz, Austria, which is an hour and a half ride from the nation’s capital Vienna.
Katzer arrived at dawn last Wednesday and immediately joined the tank-2-tank swim practice near the Saipan World Resort with some of the other pros including Mike Vine of Canada, Jim McConnel of Great Britain, fellow newcomer Sascha Wingenfeld of Germany, and Renata Bucher of Switzerland.
Bucher was the one who encouraged him to try the course on Saipan.
“It was a great swim out there,” he said.
But he admitted that he’s not that good in the swim portion since Austria is a landlocked country and he only swims in lakes.
Besides, he said, it was too cold in Austria when he left and it would take some time to acclimatize himself with the weather on Saipan.
“Biking is no problem for me,” said the 43-year-old Katzer, who is staying with Linda Graf for the duration of the Saipan Sports Fest.
Graf’s 16-year-old son Cooper will also be doing the XTERRA Saipan and Tagaman with a teammate.
Katzer, who is a member of Austria’s duathlon national team, has been into triathlon the past 23 years. He topped the 40-45 division in the XTERRA World Championships in Maui in 2007.
After that victory, Katzer became one of the regular pros in the European tour, placing 17th in the All-Europe Championships in Italy last year.
Asked about his chances, he said he would try to land in the Top 5.
Katzer had spent almost his entire life in sports.
“I like skiing as a kid. I did football, tennis, windsurfing, and started triathlon at 19,” he said.
Although, he’s a pro athlete, he does most of his time doing IT work in a Canadian factory based in Austria.
