Wake Forest Athletics
Kemper Finishes Seventh in Olympic Triathlon
8/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
Aug. 19, 2008
BEIJING, China - Former Wake Forest track and field standout Hunter Kemper had a strong showing in the triathlon, finishing seventh of 55 racers on Wednesday morning at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The seventh place finish was the best finish for the 32-year old Kemper in three tries at the Olympic Games. He took ninth four years ago in Athens after finishing 17th at the Sydney Games in 2000.
Kemper used consistently solid performances in all three legs of the race to post his career Olympic-best finish.
The race started with a 1.5 kilometer swim. Kemper actually led at times during the swim and would eventually be fourth out of the water at 18:04. He was just seconds behind Shane Reed of New Zealand, as the field made its way through the first transition zone. Kemper made it through the first transition zone in sixth place.
After two laps of the 40 kilometer biking portion, Kemper had moved into fourth place. He would ultimately finish on the bike in 59:06, which had him in seventh place at 1:18.08 after two legs.
He started the run 56 seconds behind Dirk Bockel of Luxembourg and Axel Zeebroek of Belgium. After the first two laps, Kemper had slipped a few spots to tenth place, but the chase group had picked up ground on the leaders. Kemper and the chasers were now just 18 seconds back of the lead pack.
A strong push during the final lap of the 10 kilometer run led Kemper to finish the grueling race in a total time of 1:49.48. He finished 55 seconds behind Jan Frodeno of Germany, who out ran Canada's Paul Whitfield down the final stretch to take the gold medal.
Kemper was the top American finisher as Jarrod Shoemaker finished 18th at 1:50.46. Fellow American Matty Reed had a strong biking portion to finish 32nd at 1:52.30.
For complete results of the triathlon and every Olympic event, log on to www.nbcolympics.com
