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SHEILA
TAORMINA WINS MADEIRA WORLD CUP
Funchal,
Madeira: Despite tropical showers that threatened to dampen spirits,
a large crowd of locals and tourists lined the course of the final "premiere"
Triathlon World Cup of the season.
American
teammates Sheila Taormina and Barb Lindquist joined forces from the
start and by the halfway point of the 1.5km swim had already started
to pull away from the field. Spain's Pilar Hidalgo, Britain's Jodie
Swallow and Canada's Jill Savege did not allow them to get out of reach,
and were just 8 seconds back at the swim to bike transition.
That
mere 8 seconds was enough for Taormina and Lindquist to get away onto
the hilly and technically challenging 8-lap, 40km bike course, and working
like a well-oiled machine, they lap-by-lap slowly pulled away from the
chase pack of 10. By the 20km mark their lead had built to 1:48.
Jessica Harrison of Great Britain tried to organize the hunt for the
leaders, but the size and diversity of the chase group was too disorganised,
so she decided to try to bridge to the leaders alone, leaving German
teammates Anja Dittmer and Ricarda Lisk, along with Portugal's Vanessa
Fernandez, the task of keeping the chase group in touch with the leaders.
By the 25km mark, Harrison was back with the chase pack, as Taormina
and Lindquist passed the 2 minute gap mark leaving little doubt about
the first 2 steps on the podium.
Steady rain increased the challenge of the course, as the many technical
turns became drenched. This didn't dampen the efforts of the duo at
the front as they powered up the hill and through the tight corners
of the city street. By the start of the final lap they had built up
a lead of 2:24 - unsurmountable for even the talented runners in the
chase group.
Pilar Hidalgo and Michellie Jones led the chase group through the second
transition, now almost 3 minutes behind Lindquist and Taormina.
After the 1st lap of the run, Sheila Taormina was in the lead with Barb
Lindquist on her shoulder. Jill Savege and Michellie Jones moved through
the chase pack in a vain attempt to caught the leaders, but were still
2:33 back as the rest of the chase pack faded.
By the 5km point on the run, Jill Savege and Michellie Jones had taken
45 seconds out of the 3 minute lead as Barb Lindquist moved ahead of
Taormina. The race for the top step and the 3rd step of the podium created
lots of drama for the spectators huddled under their umbrellas.
Barb Lindquist led into the final lap with a 3 second lead on Taormina,
as Savege and Jones ran shoulder to shoulder 1:55 back.
With less than a kilometre to go, Sheila Taormina made a dramatic move
on her teammate and broke off the front making a little World Cup history
for herself by beating Lindquist for the first time. She romped home
to win by 19 seconds. The sprint for the 3rd spot between Jill Savege
and Michellie Jones was so tight that it took a competition jury and
a review of the finishline camera to sort it out. In the end Savege
was given 3rd place, 1:46 behind the Taormina with Jones 4th. Jodie
Swallow was 5th a further minute back.
After the race Sheila Taormina said, "Wow - it's so great to have
the confidence to know I can run with Barb (Lindquist), then actually
out-kick her at the end. We were very lucky to build up that lead on
the field, because the course was so slippery with all the rain - we
were all pretty cautious."
Most of the field will now move on to Athens for next weekend's World
Cup event on the Vouliagmeni course which will be the site of next year's
Olympic Games Triathlon.
Top 10 Results:
1. Sheila TAORMINA, USA, 1:59:33
2. Barbara LINDQUIST, USA, 1:59:52
3. Jill SAVAGE, CAN, 2:01:19
4. Michellie JONES, AUS, 2:01:19
5. Jodie SWALLOW, GBR, 2:02:18
6. Pilar HIDALGO, ESP, 2:02:24
7. Anja DITTMER, GER, 2:02:35
8. Ainhoa MURUA, ESP, 2:03:10
9. Vanessa FERNANDES, POR, 2:04:03
10. Jessica HARRISON, GBR, 2:04:17
Visit www.triathlon.org
for complete event details.
Live coverage from Madeira on www.triathlon.org
begins 14:30 (local time); 13:30 (GMT) on Sunday, October 19.
For more information contact:
ITU Headquarters;
Email: ituhdq@triathlon.org
Phone: 1-604-926-7250 Fax: 1-604-926-7260
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