Gaag and Dibens Win 19th Holten ITU International Triathlon

Holten, The Netherlands, 5 July 2003: For immediate Release: In the women's event, Britain"s Julie Dibens dominated from the start to finish. Annaliese Heard and Lucie Zelenkova from the Czech Republic stayed with her at the front of the 1.5km swim and exited to the first transition together.

During the 40km bike the trio at the front were joined by Mieke Suys of Belgium Jodie Swallow of Britain, Anna Ivanova of Russia, Tanya deBoer of the Netherlands and Tracey Ellingham of Australia.

Once onto the 10km run, Julie put the pedal down and gently pulled away from all would-be contenders, increasing her lead on each lap.

Dibens finished in 2:03:10, almost a minute clear of British team-mate Jodie Swallow who was 2nd in 2:04:07, followed by Mieke Suys of Belgium in 2.04.46.

The best Dutch in the women's event was Wieke Hoogzaad. She was first after the bike section, but was not able to keep up the pace on the run. Hoogzaad finished 6th in 2.05.40.

The 32 year old Kazakh Dimitri Gaag, currently 3rd in the men’s ITU World Ranking finished the men's event in 1.49.37 leaving Britain’s Richard Allen 14 seconds back at 1.49.51.  The former Junior World Champion, Ukraine’s Andriy Glushchenko finished 3rd with a time of 1.50.06.  Dimitry Gaag, the 1999 World Champion is focusing all of his attention on qualifying for the 2004 Olympic Games Triathlon in Athens. 

In the 1.5km swim in the cold water of the Schipbeek, where water temperature dropped recently from 19oC to 15.5oC by race start, Gaag seemed to struggle. He started the cycling course on the Holterberg ten seconds behind the fastest swimmer of the day, Britain's Stuart Hayes.

During the 40 km bike Gaag was able to cling on to the lead group, which enabled him to start the 10km run with fresh legs.

On the first lap Gaag and Allen moved to the front and it soon became apparent that one of them would emerge as the winner. With one lap to go Gaag picked up the pace and made his way to the finish line leaving his opponent behind.

The best Dutch performance in the men's event came from Huib Rost, who finished 12th in 1:51:30. The local favourite Jan Manenschijn finished 20th 1:52:33.

Place

Name

Country

Finish

1

Julie Dibens

GBR

2:03:09

2

Jodie Swallow

GBR

2:04:06

3

Mieke Suys

BEL

2:04:45

4

Anneliese Heard

GBR

2:04:52

5

Anna Ivanova

RUS

2:05:09

6

Wieke Hoogzaad

NED

2:05:39

7

Lucie Zelenkova

CZE

2:06:14

8

Tanya de Boer

NED

2:06:46

9

Tracey Ellingham

AUS

2:06:53

10

Charlotte Kolters

DEN

2:07:54

 

Place

Name

Country

Finish

1

Dmitry Gaag

KAZ

1:49:36

2

Richard Allen

GBR

1:49:50

3

Andriy Glushchenko

UKR

1:50:06

4

Shane Reed

NZK

1:50:08

5

Steffen Justus

GER

1:50:30

6

Stuart Hayes

GBR

1:50:45

7

Fedor Filippov

RUS

1:50:47

8

Richie Cunningham

AUS

1:50:54

9

Marek Jaskolka

POL

1:50:55

10

Graham O'Grady

NZL

1:51:01

 

International Triathlon action continues on Sunday with events in Valsana, Italy and Miyagi, Japan.

Complete results and photos are available at www.triathlon.org