Bell's world triathlon title could be springboard to 2012 Olympics : govolsxtra.com

Barely two years after attempting his first triathlon, Eric Bell is a world champion — and one with 2012 Olympic aspirations.

The 28-year-old Knoxvillian won the International Triathlon Union amateur men’s world championship Saturday in chilly Vancouver, British Columbia.

“If you’d told me this two years ago I would have said, ‘No way, it’s going to take longer than that,’ ” Bell said Monday.

Bell was the overall champion of the age-group triathlon, which includes the top amateurs in the world.

His time of 1 hour, 37 minutes, 58 seconds was the overall best by 2.5 seconds.

Javier Gomez of Spain and Helen Tucker of Great Britain won the elite men’s and women’s professional triathlons, respectively, on Sunday.

Weather forced an unusual twist in Bell’s event Saturday. High winds that produced whitecaps forced the 1.5-kilometer swimming portion to be scratched after some of the older age-group swimmers struggled with hypothermia. The water temperature was in the low 50s, Bell said, and the air temperature was about the same.

“They didn’t have enough boats and lifeguards to man the event anymore,” Bell said.

Instead, a 3,000-meter run was added for the remaining age groups as prelude to the 40-kilometer bicycle ride and 10,000-meter run.

However, timing issues due to the impromptu changes forced an overnight delay in declaring results official, according to InsideTriathlon.com.

Because of Bell’s distance running background at Farragut High School and the University of Tennessee, subbing the extra run for the swim was to his advantage.

“But it was bittersweet,” he said. “I wanted to prove where my swimming was now.”

Bell led after the 3K run as the transition to bicycles began.

“Five or six of us went out together,” he said, “a couple of New Zealanders, a Hungarian, a South African and a British guy.

“I knew if I could stay in contact with them the next 10K run would be mine.”

He succeeded, standing sixth after the bike ride.

“There were four loops with a huge hill,” he said. “I would out-climb all these guys but they were like kamikazes on the downhill. They were just crazy.”

A mile into the 10K run, Bell had caught all but a couple of his rivals. Halfway through, he passed the final leader.

“That last guy, he stayed on my shoulder,” Bell said. “So I just kept pressing it and figured I shouldn’t worry about what he’s doing.

“With about a mile and a half left, he fell off.”

Bell won his age group by 18 seconds. A few hours later, he was informed he was the overall champion and the third consecutive American to win the amateur title.

After he finishes this season, Bell plans to turn professional

“Now I can put all my energy into (improving) my swimming,” he said. “If I can just get my swimming up a little bit the 2012 Olympics are not at all out of the question.”

Of the three disciplines in the triathlon, he has the strongest background in running.

Bell was a state champion in the mile at Farragut and finished second in the state in cross country in 1996. He then ran cross country and distance events at UT from 1998-2003.

“One thing I realized here,’’ Bell said. “You can swim fast and be good on a bike, but when it comes down to it, the guys who can run are the champions.’’