ITU World Cup Post Race Press
Release
Carla Moreno (BRA) and Simon
Whitfield (CAN) win the ITU Mazatlan World Cup.
The top
elite triathletes in the world met for the second
round of the International Triathlon Union World Cup series event in
The first
lap of the two lap 1500 metre swim saw Melanie
Mitchell of Australia, Susan Williams of the United States of America and the 2000
Olympic Medallist in Water Polo, Julie Swail of USA,
leading. These athletes kept their lead
coming out of the swim but were soon joined by Liz Blatchford (ITU), Anja Dittmer (GER) and Machiko
Nakanishi (JPN).
Onto the
bike Blatchford, Olga
The hard
working chase pack was over two minutes back but managed to make up time on the
lead group with Carolyn Murray (CAN) keeping them organized. The third bike
pack was a further 20 seconds behind and was composed of five athletes with
Nancy Alvarez (ARG) leading.
The final
laps of the bike saw little change in the structure of the packs – the lead
group remained about 1:40 ahead of the chase pack – Sybille Matter (SUI), Wang Hongni (CHN), Ainhoa Murua (ESP), Samantha McGlone (CAN),
Nicola Spirig (SUI), Magda Stovickova (SVK), Lenka Radova (CZE) could all be found pulling the lead pack as
could Blatchford and Maxine Seear (AUS) who seemed to
have recovered from a chest cold that forced her to drop out of last weekend’s
Honolulu International event.
Leading out
of Transition were China's Xing Lin and Wang Hongni. They were followed closely by Blatchford,
Tania Haibock and Eva Bramboeck
both of
Onto the
run, a flat four laps four laps down the Avenue Sabalo
Cervitos; Carla Moreno (BRA) took the lead, Liz Blatchford was
close on her heels two meters back and
another ten seconds back were Maxine Seear,
Anna Dittmer and Samantha McGlone.
Halfway
through the run, Carla Morena had a twenty second
lead over Maxine Seear, Anja
Dittmer and Samantha McGlone. Apparently tired from her silver medal
performance from last week in
The Elite
Women finished the ITU Mazatlan World Cup with Carla
Moreno (BRA) winning the gold medal, Anja Dittmer
(GER) winning the silver and the young Australian Olympian Maxine Seear (AUS) winning the bronze medal.
The Elite
Men’s race also took place under sunny skies but the men faced similar high
surf conditions to the women.
Exiting the
swim first was Paulo Miyashiro of
An early
lead onto the bike was taken by Jan Frodeno (GER),
Dirk Bockel (GER), Miyashiro,
and Csaba Kuttor (HUN). Mexican Francisco Serrano of
Following
the second lap of the bike the structure of the bike had started to take shape
- 8 athletes comprised the lead group with a 12 second lead over the chase
pack. In the front group were Bruno Pais (POR), Frodeno (GER), Arturo
Garza (MEX), Jose Luis Zepeda (MEX), Axel Zeebroeck
(BEL), and Kuttor. The chase pack,12 seconds back contained a number of fine athletes
including Dmitriy Gaag
(KAZ), Simon Whitfield (CAN), Brent McMahon (CAN), Paul Tichelaar
(CAN) Mark Fretta (USA), Brian Fleischmann (USA).
After lap
four and halfway through the 40 km bike, Javier Rosas and Carlos Probert both of
Nearing the
end of the bike Garza and Krommidas continued to
lengthen their lead and the big chase pack caught Kuttor and Pais.
Leaving
transition Arturo Garza and Vasilis Krommidas had a lead of 1 minute and 15 seconds. They were followed by Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS), Pais, Hunter Kemper
(USA), and Canadians McMahon and Whitfield.
The strong
runners proved too much for Garza and Krommidas - Dmitriy Gaag, Leandro
Macedo (BRA), Kahlefeldt,
Kemper, Rosas and Whitfield were all making up time.
With only
2.5 km left in the run - Gaag, Whitfield, Dehmer and Kemper overtook the early leaders.
In a very
exciting finish, Simon Whitfield (CAN), 2000 Sydney Olympic Champion, won the
gold medal, while Former World Champion Dmitriy Gaag (KAZ) won silver and Hunter Kemper (USA) won bronze.
The World
Cup Series now takes a break for the ITU Triathlon World Championships on May 9th,
2004 in Madeira,
For more
information and high-resolution photos from