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and Thompson win in Hobart:
World Number 1 ranked Barb Lindquist USA assumed her customary swim lead in the magnificent Derwent River, this time minus Nicole Hackett who retired after a knock in the swim. Some 40 sec in arrears Maxine Seear, Pip Taylor, and Emma Snowsill were ready for a chase. Emma Snowsill decided to mount a lone chase in pursuit of Lindquist and by the second of eight laps had caught Lindquist. Some minute in arrears were Felicity Abram, Tameka Day, Lisa Norden (SWE), and Lisa White. These leaders margin was whittled down over the next 5 laps, with a new lead group of Lindquist, Snowsill, Norden, Abram, Day and White entering transition together.
Lindquist and White lead Day, Abram, Norden, and Snowsill out onto the first of three laps of the run around the Hobart docks made famous as the finish of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. 2003 ITU World Champion Snowsill forged to the lead early on after catching the small break of the lead runners, and finished lap 1:15 seconds in the lead, and over 1 minute over the second placed Abram for an emphatic win of one and a half minutes in the time of 2:01:14.
Lindquist finished her Australian career with a strong and very popular third place.
Craig Walton controlled the swim leg to lead Courtney Atkinson to enter the swim to bike transition around 17 seconds ahead of a large group of 7 athletes including Shane Reed NZL, Stephen Hackett, Levi Maxwell, ahead of a chase group including former No 1 ranked Chris Hill, Craig Alexander, and Simon Thompson.
Atkinson and Walton worked the last four laps to gradually increase their lead to 53 seconds into the bike to run transition. Walton’s bike got tangled in one of the barriers entering the transition thereby allowing Atkinson to make a handy break out onto the 3 lap run course. Walton worked hard to close that gap, and then Atkinson and Walton ran together for the remainder of the first lap, with a hunt group including Quirk, Thompson, and Reed in pursuit. On the second lap Atkinson gained a 50 sec gap on Walton. On the lat lap Atkinson took a minor slip, as Thomson and Quirk chased hard, with Thompson making a break on Quirk to have a crack at the winners spot. With 300 metres to go Thompson had the lead and the World Championship spot in his grasp, running on strongly for a 6 second win. Quirk followed another 19 sec in arrears fir bronze. Reed scored a cross Tasman place for fourth, with Hill and Walton taking out the top 6 places.
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