Probably old news to many here, but I just caught wind of this. Thought I should pass it on.
Interesting. What’s equally as interesting is that the CATS race has been designated the 2004/2005 USAT Long Course (read 1/2 IM)National Championship. I wonder if this new race is a true “championship” of some sort or if it just includes the word in the title. Do you have any additional info? The website doesn’t seem like it’s complete yet.
Seems to be very middle-America favored looking at the qualifier races. Nothing west of Iowa except a race in Oregon. No qualifiers in California anywhere, yet. And who is deeming this the US Half Championship? I couldn’t find who was the organizer or governing body.
Thanks Chris. I wonder how this differs from the USAT Long Distance championship. This race doesn’t seem to be associated with USAT at all.
Along those lines, I wonder what will be the worlds qualifier for next year? All the info on the USAT site regarding worlds seems to be for the 2004 race (Sater). I had to qualify for that last year right?
All the races I’m doing this year are closing, or closed like Eagleman, so I guess I’ll just have to hope to be lucky and do a 2005 qualifier by chance.
mobiusnc
USA Triathlon National Long Course Championship
Aug. 21, 2004
CATS Half Ironman at DeGray Lake
Arkadelphia, Ark.
Fred Phillips, DLT Event Management Inc
Hotline: 870-246-6686
Fax: 870-246-6402
racing@parksidecycle.com
www.parksidecycle.com
I learned about this a few days ago when I received an press release e-mail from aasports@race center.com. This has lots of further information, although none of it seems to be the final word. The e-mail did list the qualifying races that are on the event’s embryonic website, but also says that other qualifiers will be announced; the ones they list are confirmed as of January 6. This sounds like something worth keeping track of.
Championship of what? Did the RD just decide his race was the championship? Can he do that? 
It looks and sounds like a great race, but I agree that the qualifiers are definitely Mid-West favoring. Although the info I saw, said that you would also be able to qualify by meeting a time standard that is yet to be posted.
It does seem odd that the USAT LC Championship race (CATS) is a qualifier for this championship…
G