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ITU Media
Release: 15 June 2003
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Liz Blatchford Takes Her First World Cup Victory in
Gamagori
Gamagori, Japan, 15 June 2003: For immediate Release: The sky
cleared just prior to the start of the women’s Gamagori ITU World Cup leaving
air temperatures at 22oC and humidity at 94%.
The non-wetsuit swim was in water temperature of 24oC. There was a gentle breeze from the southeast
at 2.3 km/hr.
Shortly after a picture-perfect start to the 2 lap, 1500
metre swim course, Laura Reback of the USA took a 3 metre lead on a chase group
of 9 which included Chinese teammates Meng Shi and Lin Xing, Sharon Donnelly of
Canada, Silvia Gemignani of Italy, Emma Snowsill and Liz Blatchford of
Australia and Japan’s Ai Ueda.
At the end of the swim, Italy’s Silvia Gemignani sprinted
for the swim exit ramp and was first through the transition area and onto the 7
lap bike. She was followed closely by
ten other women including Laura Reback, Sharon Donnelly, Meng Shi, Liz
Batchford, Emma Snowsill, Amanda Pagon and Julie Swail of the USA, Lin Xing and
Giunia Chenevier of Italy. The chase
pack was led through transition by Eva Brambock of Austria, Samantha Warriner
of New Zealand, Olga Generalova of Russia, Gillian Moody of Canada, and Japanese
teammates Eri Nakagawa, Kyomi Niwata and Akiko Sekine.
A bike crash on the first lap between Lenka Radova of the
Czech Republic and Ai Ueda of Japan resulted in Radova withdrawing from the
event. Ueda managed to dust herself off
and continue.
Silvia Gemignani was at the front of the lead group of 9 as
they went through to lap #2, with Laura Reback, Ming Shi, Sharon Donnelly, Liz
Blatchford, Emma Snowsill, Amanda Pagon.
Kiyomi Niwata and Gillian Moody were at the front of the chase group
that was 40 seconds back at this point.
By the half way point on the bike, the chase pack led by Lin
Xing of China and Gillian Moody of Canada started to close the 45 second gap to
the leaders as Liz Blatchford took over at the front of the lead group. The 3rd group, lead by Natasha
Filliol and Samantha McGlone of Canada and Emma Carney of Australia was also
making up ground on the leaders.
Meanwhile, overhead the skies were threatening to open up as the rain
appeared to be returning.
On the last lap of the bike the chase group caught the
leaders which resulted in a large group of 29 at the front. The new chase group led by Natasha Filliol
and Emma Carney were also making up ground..
Lin Xing of China took over the lead at the front for the last lap.
Once onto the 3 lap, 10km run course, Laura Reback quickly
moved through transition to take the lead, followed closely by Canadian
teammates Sharon Donnelly and Natasha Filliol, Liz Blatchford, Mirinda Carfrae
of the USA and Akiko Sekine. Carfrae
soon dropped back, finding the pace at the front a little too swift and at one
point was almost swallowed up by a surging Emma Carney who made a dramatic
recovery after being back by about 50 seconds after the bike.
At the halfway point on the run, Laura Reback and Liz
Blatchford continued to run together at the front, followed closely by the
Japanese running specialist Akiko Sekine.
Natasha Filliol was a short distance behind, with Mirinda Carfrae
recovering her pace to maintain 5th place. Emma Carney, running very strongly had run through the field into
6th place.
At the start of the final lap, Liz Blatchford put the hammer
down on Laura Reback and started to run away with the race. Akiko Sekine and Natasha Filliol were
closing in on Laura Reback as the struggle for the silver and bronze medal was
heating up.
Liz Blatchford continued to pull away from Laura Reback and
crossed the line 12 seconds ahead, to reverse the finish of last weekend’s
Tongyeong ITU World Cup event in Korea where she lost in a sprint finish to
Reback. Akiko Sekine delighted the home
country crowd of some 15,000 in the stadium by taking the final podium
spot. Mirinda Crafrae passed Natasha
Filliol on the last lap to take 4th, as Filliol was 5th. Emma Carney impressed many of her Japanese
fans with a 6th place finish, her best in several years.
For complete results and photos, please visit www.triathlon.org.
High resolution photos of the event courtesy of ITU Media /
Spomedis are available – please contact:
Lisa Ogilvie, ITU Media Manager
Email: lisa@triathlon.org
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