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Sindballe and
Kozulina Win World Title
Sater, Sweden: Sunday, 4 July 2004: : When the women dove into
the pristine water of Lake Ljustern on the edge of Sater, no one could
have guessed that when the race came to an end Tamara Kozulina would
be the first triathlete from The Ukraine to
win an ITU World title. Coming
in the shadow of world class Olympic Triathletes Vladimir Polykarpenko
and Andrei Gluschenko, the victory for Kozulina is all the sweeter.
For most of the women’s event
Lisbeth Kristensen of Denmark,
the 2003 European Champion and 2001 World Champion, appeared to be the
easy winner. Kristensen exited
the 2 lap 4km swim at the front with Eva Novakova of the Czech
Republic and
Italy’s
Manuela Ianesi in 59:30, 20 seconds ahead of the chase group. At the swim to bike transition, Tamara Kozulina
was 10:33 back,
but managed to pull back almost 3 minutes on the leaders over the 5
lap, 120km bike.
Meanwhile Kristensen powered
away from Ianesi and Novakova on the bike and by the bike to run transition
she had a 4 minute lead over Sione Jongstra of the Netherlands who
had moved into 2nd place.
Australia’s
Rebekah Keat and Britain’s
Rachel Horn also moved into podium contention during the bike.
The 4 lap, 30km run was very
dramatic as Kozulina moved through the field eating away at the 7:16 lead
that Kristensen had on her. She
secured a podium spot on the first lap by passing Rachel Horn, and then
started the hunt for Jongstra and Kristensen.
At the halfway point Kristensen was still 2:18 ahead of Jongstra and 4:03 ahead
of Kozulina.
By the bell lap, Kristensen
was fading and allowing her second World title to slip away. Kozulina quickly made up the 30 seconds she
was down on Jongstra then went after Kristensen despite being 2:31 behind.
Kozulina caught Kristensen
in the dying moment of the race and romped home to take the title in
6:41:29. Kristensen was able to hold off Jongstra who
was 3rd. In all 9
countries were represented in the top 10 – a new record for women’s
long distance triathlon.
Top 10 Results: Elite Women
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1
|
KOZULINA
|
Tamara
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UKR
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6:41:29.3
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2
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KRISTENSEN
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Lisbeth
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DEN
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6:42:12.3
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|
3
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JONGSTRA
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Sione
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NED
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6:43:30.4
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|
4
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COMERFORD
|
Bella
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GBR
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6:44:16.1
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5
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BOMAN
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Tiina
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FIN
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6:46:44.0
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6
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GROSS
|
Sara
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GBR
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6:50:27.7
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7
|
AZANZA
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Cristina
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ESP
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6:53:31.3
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8
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NIEDERFRINIGER
|
Edith
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ITA
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6:56:03.8
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9
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PATOU
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Estelle
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FRA
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6:59:53.6
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10
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NOVÁKOVÁ
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Eva
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CZE
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7:00:19.0
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In the men’s event Swedish team-mates
Joachim Willen and Bjorn Andersson exited the water together along with
Gianpietro De Faveri of Italy in 52:38.
James Bonney of the USA led the
chase group which was 6 seconds back at this point.
Once onto the bike Andersson’s
experience as a cyclist started to show as he dropped both Willen and
De Faveri and pulled away from the field.
By the end of the 1st lap he had a 1:54 lead over
Torbjorn Sindballe of Denmark, Jones
Colting of Sweden and Gael
Mainard of France.
By the 75km mark of the bike Andersson’s
lead had increased to 3:08, as Sindballe
dropped Colting and Mainard and started to close the gap on the big
Swede at the front.
Sindballe was able to hold Andersson’s
lead to 3 minutes as they entered the bike to run transition, with Colting
and Mainard a further 4 minutes back.
Andersson’s lead ended on the
first lap of the run when Sindballe caught him, then surged on to post
a 1:53:07, 30km run time – 10th best of the day but sufficient
to hold off a surging Colting who finished just 43 seconds back. Marino Vanhoenacker came from back in the field
to steal the last step on the podium from Xavier Le Floch of France, who was
3rd at last year’s World Championships.
Top 10 Results: Elite Men:
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PL.
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Name
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Country
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Time
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Diff
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1
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Sindballe
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Torbjörn
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DEN
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5:46:14.0
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00:00.0
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2
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Colting
|
Jonas
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SWE
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5:46:57.9
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00:43.9
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3
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Vanhoenacker
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Marino
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BEL
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5:51:10.1
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04:56.1
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4
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Le Floch
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Xavier
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FRA
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5:51:35.8
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05:21.8
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5
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Reboul
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Gilles
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FRA
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5:53:54.9
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07:40.9
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6
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Loy
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Julien
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FRA
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5:55:23.3
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09:09.3
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7
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Fritzsche
|
Paul
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USA
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5:56:43.7
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10:29.7
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8
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Vernay
|
Patrick
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FRA
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5:57:03.7
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10:49.7
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9
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Andersson
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Björn
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SWE
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5:57:19.4
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11:05.4
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10
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Luoto
|
Mika
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FIN
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5:59:21.8
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13:07.8
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Please visit www.triathlon.org for complete results and
photos including the 2004 ITU Age Group World Championships results.
For high resolution photos from
Sater, please email: ITU Media at ituhdq@triathlon.org
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