The Polish team, Zakrzewski has 215 VPs out of a possible 250 to lead Jan Westerhof's Dutch team by 36 VPs in Group D. Next biggest score is the 207 of Gabriel Chagas of Brazil. That gives them a lead of 21 VPs over Marino of Italy in Group E.

Two-thirds of the way through the group stage, the cream is gradually making its way to the top of the various groups but there are still some heavyweight teams with a lot of work to do. Maas of the Netherlands lies only seventh in Group B behind leaders, Calderwood (GBR) and Svoboda (CZR) with four to qualify; Sussel of France lie ninth in Group E; Bramley (USA) are seventh in Group F.

The group leaders are as follows:

A - Yalcin, Switzerland, 202; Walvick, USA, 181.
B - Calderwood, Great Britain, 180; Svoboda, Czeh Republic, 170.
C - Nilsson, Sweden, 204; Burgay, Italy, 193.2.
D - Zakrzewski, Poland, 215; Westerhof, Netherlands, 179.
E - Chagas, Brazil, 207; marino, Italy, 186.
F - Westra, Netherlands, 189.5; Spiljak, Croatia, 181.
G - Angelini, Italy, 195; Klar, USA, 168.
H - Rocafort, France, 192; Lindkvist, Sweden, 185.
I - Robinson, USA, 198; Price, Great Britain, 187.
K - Cronier, France, 191; Schaffer, Denmark, 174.
L - Beauvillain, France, 174; Wolff, USA, 172.
M - Bitran, France, 189; Kowalski, Poland, 185.5.
N - Izisel, France, 195; Sundelin, Sweden, 186.
P - Dufour, France, 187; Schwartz, USA, 180.5.
R - ross, USA, 197; Wu, China, 194.
S - Hackett, Great Britain, 195; Thuillez, France, 184.

Maria Erhart's Austrian squad still leads Group Z of the McConnell Teams with 160 VPs, three ahead of Karen Allison of USA with 157. The qualification in this event is the top eight teams from each group so there are few top teams in danger of not making the cut. Other group leaders are: W - Modica, Italy, 156; Blouquit, France, 146.5. X - morse, USA, 151; Wood, USA, 146. Y - McGowan, Great Britain, 149.5; Munson, USA, 146.5; Solodar, USA, 146.5.

The first stage of the Junior Triathlon ended yesterday with a win for Italy in the Junior Teams. The INTONTI team (Intonti, Marino, Pagani, Medusei) lost their last match against a French team by 14-16 VPs, but that was just sufficient to hold off MADSEN (Denmark), who finished with a maximum but were just too far behind. Another Italian team, GUARIGLIA, lost their last match by 16-14 when they needed 24 VPs to overtake their compatriots. INTONTI finished 2 VPs ahead of MADSEN with GUARIGLIA a further 5 VPs behind the Danes.