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Luxford and Gemmell Win Gamagori Triathlon World Cup
Gamagori, Japan: For immediate release: Nicole Hackett of Australia took an early lead in the 2 lap,
1500m swim with Laura Reback of the USA and Annabel Luxford of Australia a few seconds behind. By the swim to bike transition Hackett had
a 2 second lead over Luxford and Reback and the current World Cup leader, Anja Dittmer of Germany.
The
quartet linked up and immediately began to work like a well-oiled machine. By the end of the first lap of the six lap,
40km bike, they had a 45 second lead over Maxine Seear of Australia who was alone trying to bridge
to the leaders. The large chase
pack was already 1:53 back at this point and was led by Japan’s Maki Shimomura and Michelle Dillon
of Great Britain, one of the best runners in the sport. But, with a 1:53 deficit after 10km on the
bike, the odds of them catching the leaders was already disappearing.
Laura
Reback dropped off the pace after the first lap as Luxford, Dittmer and Hackett formed a tight trio at the front.
Maxine Seear, winner of the Ishigaki World Cup, was closing in on Reback and the leaders at the front.
At
the 20km mark, Anja Dittmer was at the lead of the trio at the front
as they charged past the stadium, with Nicole Hackett and Annabel Luxford tucked in behind. Maxine Seear had closed in on Reback and was
just 7 seconds back, but they were over 2 minutes behind the leaders.
The large pack was almost 3 minutes behind the leaders, which
lead to speculation that the trio at the front would be the podium.
The
chase pack led by Michelle Dillon caught Seear and Reback on the 4th
lap and they pulled some time out of the leaders, but not enough to
make a difference to the final results.
Nicole
Hackett, in her first World Cup event of the season after taking time off to have
a family, was the first through the bike to run transition and onto
the 3 lap, 10km final run leg. Luxford and Dittmer were just seconds
behind the 2000 World Champion.
Maki
Shimomura was the first of the chase group through T2, but a formidable 3:05 back, with Debbie Tanner
of New Zealand and Michelle Dillon on her heels.
Annabel
Luxford, who has stood on many podium
steps this season except the one at the top, took control of the run
on the first lap as she gave notice to the others that this was her
day.
By
the 5km mark, the young Australian at the front had a commanding
lead over the World Cup leader Anja Dittmer and Nicole Hackett. 24 seconds separated the leader from the chase
pair as they did a see-saw battle for 2nd and 3rd. . Michelle
Dillon ate up the run course making up 30 seconds on the first lap,
but time had run out on any hopes that she had about catching the leaders.
Luxford romped home for the win in the shadow of the giant
Ferris wheel, with resounding cheers from the fans around the stadium. Dittmer out-dueled Hackett for 2nd. Michelle Dillon had the fasters run split
of the day at 35:12 to take 4th and Maxine Seear was 5th.
Anja
Dittmer retained her lead in the World Cup, and it will take the final
2 World Cup events in Cancun and Rio to determine this year’s winner.
Top 10 results are:
|
Place
|
Name
|
Country
|
Time
|
|
1
|
LUXFORD Annabel
|
AUS
|
02:09:24
|
|
2
|
DITTMER Anja
|
GER
|
02:09:51
|
|
3
|
HACKETT Nicole
|
AUS
|
02:10:11
|
|
4
|
DILLON Michelle
|
GBR
|
02:11:17
|
|
5
|
SEEAR Maxine
|
AUS
|
02:11:58
|
|
6
|
SEKINE Akiko
|
JPN
|
02:12:30
|
|
7
|
UEDA Ai
|
JPN
|
02:12:52
|
|
8
|
TAKAGI Misato
|
JPN
|
02:14:55
|
|
9
|
REBACK Laura
|
USA
|
02:15:33
|
|
10
|
BIWATA Miyuki
|
JPN
|
02:16:07
|
In
the men’s event, it was Steffen Justus and Jan Frodeno, both part of
the new wave of young German athletes, who took an early lead in the
swim, with Australia’s Courtney Atkinson and Japan’s Tsukasa Hirano close behind.
By
the swim exit Andreas Raelert of Germany had moved up behind Justus who
was the first through transition and onto the bike.
The
5 lap bike included a short but very challenging climb up to a giant gold Buddha
at the top of the hill. Ryosuke
Yamamoto of Japan delighted the home-country fans by breaking away from
the large pack the first time up the hill and by the second lap he had
created a gap of 24 seconds. Seth
Wealing of the USA, Kris Gemmell of New Zealand and Steffen Justus fought at the
front of the big chase pack and pulled Yamamoto back to 12 seconds by
the end of the 3rd lap.
Gemmell
and Raelert took advantage of the moment when the large pack relaxed
after catching Yamamoto on the 4th lap to make a second break,
and by the start of the bell lap they had a 52 second lead over the
chase group which was led by Matt Reed of the USA and Stuart Hayes of
Great Britain.
Raelert
and Gemmell maintained their 50 second lead
on the chase pack and enjoyed a clear transition, as Matt Reed and Stuart
Hayes broke from the chase pack on the last lap and entered transition
with a 40 second window before the big group arrived.
Raelert
was the first one onto the run course, with Kris Gemmell 1 second behind.
Reed and Hayes were just over 50 seconds back at this point.
At the end of the 1st lap Dimitri Gaag of Kazakhstan,
Bryce Quirk of Australia, and Sebastien Dehmer of Germany who suffered a 1:46 deficit after
the bike had made up an incredible 35 seconds. Gaag dropped Dehmer and Quirk on the 2nd
lap to close to within 37 seconds of the leaders. Reed also dropped off the pace as Gemmell
and Raelert continued to run shoulder to shoulder at the front, with
Hayes within striking distance of the leader.
At
the bell lap, the drama at the front was driving the large crowd that
lined the course into a frenzy. Stuart
Hayes took the lead from Gemmell and Raelert, as Gaag closed in on the
leaders.
Kris
Gemmell, who stood on the sidelines watching his team and training mates
win gold and silver in Athens a month ago, was the one who dug deeper
than the rest to take the win – his first ever in World Cup events. Dimitri Gaag, with the fastest run split of
the day out sprinted Stuart Hayes for second and took a strangle hold
on the lead of the World Cup Series. German
team-mates Andreas Raelert and Sebastien Dehmer rounded out the top
5.
Top 10 results are:
|
Place
|
Name
|
Country
|
Time
|
|
1
|
GEMMELL
Kris
|
NZL
|
01:58:06
|
|
2
|
GAAG
Dmitri
|
KAZ
|
01:58:10
|
|
3
|
HAYES
Stuart
|
GBR
|
01:58:14
|
|
4
|
RAELERT
Andreas
|
GER
|
01:58:21
|
|
5
|
DEHMER
Sebastian
|
GER
|
01:58:31
|
|
6
|
QUIRK
Bryce
|
AUS
|
01:59:01
|
|
7
|
KAHLEFELDT
Brad
|
AUS
|
01:59:11
|
|
8
|
PLATA
Victor
|
USA
|
01:59:16
|
|
9
|
FRODENO
Jan
|
GER
|
01:59:21
|
|
10
|
TAKAHAMA
Kuniaki
|
JPN
|
01:59:23
|
After
the event, ITU President Les McDonald congratulated the Japan Triathlon Union and organisers of the Gamagori World Cup. “With some fine tuning, this venue will make
for a spectacular World Championships for elite, under 23 and junior in 2005. The addition of the hill around the Buddha
and the new venue at Laguna Gamagori has made this one of the most
interesting events on the circuit.”
Please
visit www.triathlon.org for
complete results, photos and updated World Cup Rankings. For high resolution photos please contact
ITU Media at: ituhdq@triathlon.org
World Cup action takes a few weeks
off before resuming in Cancun, Mexico on 31 October, then it’s on to
the World Cup finale in Rio on 7 November.
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