Snowsill and Don Win Season’s Opener
Australia took all three spots on the podium in Hawaii with Emma Snowsill leading
the way with a blistering performance. Meanwhile Tim Don won the seasons opener
with an impressive race in the Hawaiian heat.
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here for
event results and pictures.
Australia’s Olympic silver medalist Loretta Harrop went to the front from the
starter’s horn, and led through the 2 lap 1500m swim course staged at world
famous Waikiki Beach. Her Aussie team-mate Emma Snowsill, Great Britain’s Anneliese
Heard and USA teammates Julie Swail, Laura Bennett, and Barb Lindquist dogged
Harrop until the swim to bike transition.Once onto the bike Harrop powered her
way up Diamond Head Road leaving all contenders in her wake, increasing the
distance to the chase pack on every lap. The original chase group of 5 included
Swail, Lindquist, Heard, Bennett, and Snowsill, but the hill took its toll on
the group as Swail and Bennett fell off the pace. Meanwhile USA Olympic bronze
medalist. Susan Williams, Germany’s Joelle Franzmann, Australia’s Annabel
Luxford organized a second chase pack which picked off the stragglers and overtook
the chase pack on the 4th lap of the 5 lap course.As they completed the 40km
bike course, Harrop’s lead had increased to 2 minutes and she appeared to have
the captured another World Cup victory.It took Emma Snowsill 2.5km of the 10km
run to eat up the lead and overtake Harrop. Snowsill increased her lead on each
of the remaining kilometers, spurred on by the thundering cheers from the thousands
of fans and tourists who lined the course. Harrop finished 2 minutes back with
Annabel Luxford just 3 seconds behind. Joelle Franzmann was 4th and Canada’s
Samantha McGlone put together a very impressive bike – run combo to place 5th.
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here for
event results and pictures.
1 Snowsill Emma 02:04:39
2 Harrop Loretta 02:06:35
3 Luxford Annabel 02:06:38
4 Franzmann Joelle 02:07:24
5 McGlone Samantha 02:08:13
6 Lindquist Barbara 02:08:27
7 Williams Susan 02:08:27
8 Abram Felicity 02:08:57
9 Whitcombe Andrea 02:09:15
10 Carfrae Mirinda 02:09:37
In the men’s event the world class field that dove from the start platform was
a wonderful spectacle to witness. USA’s Andy Potts posted the fastest 1500 m
swim time of the day in 18:49 to exit first. Close behind him were German team-mates
Jan Frodeno and Maik Petzold, Vladimir Polikarpenko from the Ukraine who was
2nd in the ITU World Ranking last year, France’s Stephane Poulat and Hunter
Kemper of the USA. A large pack exited onto the 5 lap, 40km bike course with
everyone nervously awaiting the first attempted break. Poulat tried to go it
alone on the first lap, and made some gains on the pack, but it wasn’t until
Seth Wealing of the USA managed to bridge up to him that things started to get
interesting. Wealing and Poulat increased their lead on the large chase pack
each time they powered up the big hill, and by the bike to run transition they
had a lead of over 2 minutes.Wealing was first onto the 4 lap, 10km run course,
with Poulat starting to fade after his brave effort on the bike. Matt Reed from
the USA, who is the tallest man on the World Cup circuit, was the first to appear
on the horizon in the hunt for the leaders. At one point it appeared as if this
was his day to capture a World Cup title as his form and pace was perfect to
overtake Wealing. However, there were a few others in the field who were on
pace to run sub-32 minute 10km runs, not a simple feat in the heat of Hawaii.
USA’s Hunter Kemper and Victor Plata, Tim Don from Great Britain and Courtney
Atkinson from Australia, along with Terrenzo Bozzone, New Zealand’s triple World
Junior Champion, started to move in on Reed as he caught Wealing and didn’t
allow him much time at the front. But it was the wiry Tim Don who can perform
well under any conditions who moved to the front and stayed there for the final
lap. Kemper and Atkinson were able to stay with him, but Don sprinted ahead
to take the win. Kemper was 2nd, just 1 second back. Terenzo Bozzone posted
his best performance in World Cup racing with a 4th and Matt Reed held on for
an impressive 5th.
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here for
event results and pictures.
1 Don Tim 01:54:23
2 Kemper Hunter 01:54:24
3 Atkinson Courtney 01:54:31
4 Bozzone Terenzo 01:54:38
5 Reed Matthew 01:54:50
6 Plata Victor 01:54:56
7 Thompson Simon 01:55:01
8 Wealing Seth 01:55:06
9 Polikarpenko Volodymyr 01:55:16
10 Potts Andy 01:55:30
Don’t forget to check out the photo
gallery on the Honolulu event page.
The event’s live coverage on www.triathon.org did have some technical
difficulties because of the thousands of people who logged on to follow the
event. Our apologies for these difficulties – it will be rectified before
next weekend live coverage of the second stop on the World Cup circuit…the
ITU Mazatlan World Cup.
Related Event: 2005 Honolulu ITU Triathlon World Cup
Results: Elite Men | |||
---|---|---|---|
DNS. | Andreas Giglmayr | AUT | DNS |
DNS. | Craig Alexander | AUS | DNS |
DNS. | Dirk Bockel | LUX | DNS |
DNF. | Sebastian Dehmer | GER | DNF |
DNF. | Cedric Fleureton | FRA | DNF |
Results: Elite Women | |||
---|---|---|---|
DNS. | Shizuka Kutsuna | JPN | DNS |
DNF. | Ai Ueda | JPN | DNF |
DNF. | Natasha Filliol | CAN | DNF |
DNF. | Carol Montgomery | CAN | DNF |
DNF. | Tara Ross | CAN | DNF |