The
women hit the sparkling Caribbean first at 8am for
the 2 lap 1500 metre swim and it was last weekends
Aquathlon champ, Pilar Hidalgo from Spain who took
the early lead. On her heels were, team mate Ana Burgos,
Lausanne World Cup champion, Siri Lindley from the
United States and Pip Taylor from Australia, all working
hard to make a break from the rest of the field. After
lap two, Lindley took control and led the frontrunners
out of the water onto the 6 lap, 40km bike course.
The leaders managed to hang onto their position at
the front for two laps before they were caught by
the chase pack, including Canadian newcomer, Natasha
Yaremszuk, Nancy Alvarez from Argentina and Maribel
Blanco from Spain. This larger group worked together
for the rest of the cycle section and took off on
the final 10km run close on one another’s heels.
Early in the run, Lindley proved her late season strength
by surging to the front, while series newcomer Burgos
pulled into second and Tokyo World Cup bronze medallist,
Hidalgo took hold of third. Despite the sweltering
heat, Lindley held on to take her second world cup
of the season, while Burgos and Hidalgo maintained
their positions to bring Spain the silver and the
bronze.
In
the men’s event, buddies Richard Stannard from
Great Britain and newly crowned Aquathlon Champion,
Matt Reed from New Zealand took charge in the swim
and stormed out onto the bike with a healthy lead.
Behind them a formidable pack, including Dimitry Gaag
from Kazakhstan, Jamie Hunt from New Zealand, Csaba
Kuttor from Hungary, Uzziel Valderrabano from Mexico
and the entire Spanish team worked well together to
make up their lead. Meanwhile, early in lap two, Argentinean
cycling sensation, Oscar Galindez made a spectacular
break from the chase pack and caught the leaders —
forming a formidable triumvirate at the front. By
the end of the 40km cycle, Stannard, Reed and Galindez
had a 2 minute lead on the rest of the field but many
of the world’s fastest runners were yet to come.
Soon after transition two, Galindez pulled into the
lead, with Reed close behind while Stannard dropped
off the pace and was soon caught by the chasing runners.
With temperature rising to 30 degrees on the run course,
the heat began to take its toll on many but both Galindez
and Reed managed to overcome the challenge and hold
onto their top spots. Behind them, Spaniard, Hector
Llanos pulled away from the crowd for third, his first
World Cup podium placing, while Dimitry Gaag came
home in fourth, capturing just enough points to claim
the 2000 ITU World Cup series crown. Today’s
first place for Galindez marks his first ITU World
Cup win since 1993.
Athletes
from the Americas competing in today’s event
were also competing for top honours in the Pan American
region as today’s World Cup had a dual function
as the 2000 Pan American Championships. At the end
of the day, both Lindley and Galindez took top honours
in both categories while Natasha Yaremszuk from the
Canada and Amanda Pagon from USA took 2nd
and 3rd for the Pan American women and
Mexico’s Uzziel Valderrabano and Bruno Arochi
took the second two podium spots for the Pan American
men.
In
total, 21 women from 10 nations and 58 men from 16
nations participated in this, the last race of the
2000 ITU World Cup season. Series honours will be
awarded tonight at the Athlete of the Year awards
banquet — where Dimitry Gaag from Kazakhstan
and Michellie Jones of Australia will each take home
the IOC President’s Cup trophy for top series
honours.
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10 Results
