Dave Martin, a 66-year old retired Solana Beach veterinarian and member of the San Diego Triathlon Club, was killed today during a rare shark attack while swimming off the coast of Solana Beach.

Sarah Haskins narrowly missed taking the automatic qualification spot at the 2008 US Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa, AL, but put herself in a good position to be considered for the final slot. She talked to Slowtwitch about racing and training.

Jay Prasuhn has established a reputation for competence, fairness and for being exceptionally well-informed. He’s one of triathlon’s wordsmiths and as our new Senior Editor we’re glad to report he’ll be smithing his words here.

Campagnolo projects a kinder, gentler image for its U.S. operations, through hiring Tom Kattus to run its North American office. Kattus has a multisport background, so, could this mean more Chorus and Record in the transition area?

Kirsten Sweetland won the 2006 Triathlon Junior World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland and continued to impress during her 2007 rookie pro ITU season. We wanted to know more about this 19 year old from Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Earlier this year Michael Klueh was part of the Longhorn 800m relay team that set a new American record in 6:10.55, breaking the previous mark of 6:14.14 set by Club Wolverine. Later this summer he’ll try to qualify for the Olympics in the the 200, 400 and 1500m freestyle.

Despite temperatures in the high 90s and 94% humidity, Olaf Sabatschus won the inaugural Ironman China with a very impressive running performance. Belinda Granger looked smooth throughout the women’s race and took the title with an almost 30 minute cushion.

The U.S. Olympic Trials in triathlon feature 21 men and women racing for 2 slots. The link to our online coverage is found here.

The Olympic Trials this weekend will be a quite interesting and exciting race but might not indicate who will do best in Beijing. The small fields in both events will most likely impact the race flow and the final results and there won’t be small fields at the Olympics.

Our ITU athlete-in-the-field Colin Jenkins made his way over to Japan for the Ishigaki World Cup. He shares his experiences in the Land of the Rising Sun with us in part two of this series.

Ironman announced earlier this week that the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii would feature an expanded expo called Kona Demo Days. Does that mean that the Kona expo will soon be for triathlon what the Seaotter Classic is for road and mountain biking?

Tim DeBoom announced this week that he’ll be participating in the 2008 Leadville 100 event. Although no stranger to long distance triathlons and marathon running, this will be DeBoom’s first foray into ultra distance running.