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Anja Dittmer
and Shane Reed Beat the Heat in Tiszaujvaros
Tiszaujvaros, Hungary: For immediate release:
Conditions for the 8th stop on the ITU World Cup Series were
complicated by the recent wave of storms that have swept across eastern
Europe. The Tiszau River,
location of the 2 lap, 1.5km swim portion of the event was swollen with a
current much faster than normal. The
slick organizing committee of this World Cup managed to safely manage the
situation to ensure that the swim went off without a hitch.
In the women’s event Great
Britain’s Olympic
hopeful, Jodie Swallow moved to the front after the starter’s signal
and exited the water with a 9 second lead over Annabel Luxford
of Australia. Christiane Pilz of Germany led
the chase pack from the water with a 24 second deficit.
The 40km bike course consisted of a 10km stretch
to the centre of Tiszaujvaros, then 6 laps with 10
technical corners each lap. Luxford and Swallow were chased down on the way to the
city by British team-mates Leanda Cave and Anneliese Heard, German team-mates Christiane
Pilz and Anja Dittmer,
Olga Generalova of Russia, Pilar Hidalgo of Spain, and Lenka Radova of the Czech
Republic. The lead group worked like a well-oiled
machine and increased their lead over the chase group on each of the
laps. Anastasia Yatsenko
of the Ukraine and
Carole Peon of France
worked hard at the front of the chase group, which numbered 12 and included
Olympic hopefuls Maxine Seear of Australia,
Mieke Suys of Belgium, Machiko
Nakanishi of Japan,
Erika Molnar of Hungary, Nina
Anisimova of Russia and
Renata Berkova of the Czech Republic.
Jodie Swallow was not able to stay the pace at
the front and by the halfway point had dropped back 56 seconds and was caught
by the chase group on the 4th lap.
Anja
Dittmer pulled the lead group through the 5th lap, as Erika
Molnar, cheered on by the thousands of home-country spectators that lined the
course, energised the chase group. They were able to make up some time on the
leaders from their 1:50
deficit at the 30km mark to 1:34 at
the bike to run transition.
Pilz was
first off the bike with Hidalgo and
Dittmer on her heels followed by Radova and
Cave. Hidalgo and
Dittmer stayed at the front on the first lap with Luxford
and Radova dropping back 19 seconds. Pilz and Cave
were not able to stay the pace and dropped further back. By the 5km mark Dittmer was in control and
comfortably ahead of Hidalgo by 14 second as Luxford
and Radova were engaged in a seesaw battle for the
final podium step 1:14 behind the leader.
The ease with which Dittmer cruised through the
final lap sent a signal through the triathlon world that her preparations for
Athens are
definitely on track. With air temperature
soaring to over 30oC, she posted the fastest time on the Tiszaujvaros
course and appeared to have lots left in the tank. Pilar Hidalgo, also
impressive in the heat, was second 26 seconds back. Lenka Radova won the battle for the podium, dropping Luxford on the final lap, with Christine Pilz rounding out the top 5
Top 10
results are:
|
Place
|
Name
|
Country
|
Finish Time
|
|
1
|
Anja
DITTMER
|
GER
|
1:52:35
|
|
2
|
Pilar
HIDALGO
|
ESP
|
1:53:01
|
|
3
|
Lenka
RADOVA
|
CZE
|
1:53:50
|
|
4
|
Annabel
LUXFORD
|
AUS
|
1:54:11
|
|
5
|
Christiane PILZ
|
GER
|
1:54:42
|
|
6
|
Leanda
CAVE
|
GBR
|
1:55:11
|
|
7
|
Maxine
SEEAR
|
AUS
|
1:55:34
|
|
8
|
Marion
LORBLANCHET
|
FRA
|
1:55:38
|
|
9
|
Renata
BERKOVA
|
CZE
|
1:55:40
|
|
10
|
Mieke
SUYS
|
BEL
|
1:55:46
|
In the men’s event Russia’s
Ivan Vassiliev and France’s Stephane Poulat set the pace at
the front, with Marko Albert of Estonia, Volodymyr Polikarpenko (last
year’s winner) of the Ukraine,
Shane Reed of New
Zealand,
David Dellow of Australia and
newcomer Lorenc Balogh of
Hungary in
contact with the leaders.
Vassiliev was
first to exit the water, then Poulat and Albert,
with Polikarpenko, Dellow,
Balogh and Reed catching the train to form a tight
group of 7 at the front.
The chase group of 11 was led out of the water by
Anton Chuchko of Russia,
followed by Daniel Sapunov of Kazakhstan, Jan Frodeno of Germany and
home-town favourite Csaba Kuttor of Hungary. By the time they hit the town, they were 31
seconds behind the leaders.
The fine-tuned machine at the front worked it’s magic through the technical course, much to the
delight of the thousands of triathlon-crazy spectators that lined the
course. They increased their lead to
53 seconds by the 20km mark, then to 1:22 at
30km. Britain’s
Olympic hopeful Andrew Johns was trapped inside the 2nd chase pack
at this time, along with World Cup leader Dimitri Gaag of Kazakhstan,
almost 3:00 back
as they entered the final lap of the bike.
Dellow was
first off the bike, and he swept through transition and posted a 1:40 lead on the chase
group. Reed and Balogh
emerged onto the 4 lap run course next as both the air temperature and the
air of excitement heated up.
Shane Reed, know as “Snuffy”
because of the cartoon character he created, overtook Dellow
on the first lap and never looked back.
Stephane Poulat
moved up to Reed, but was never able to overtake the wily Kiwi. By the 5km mark Reed had a 17 second lead
on Poulat as Polikarpenko
solidified his hold on 3rd place by dropping Dellow.
Reed had a 46 second lead on Poulat
as he arrived at the finish to a deafening roar from the crowd. Volodymyr Polikarpenko, the 2003 World Cup overall winner held off
a surging Vassiliev for 3rd, as
David Dellow moves up in World Cup series by rounding out the
top 5.
The men from the Ukraine
surprised everyone by placing 3 in the top 10, as Polikarpenko’s
team-mates Andrey Glushchenko and relative newcomer
Andrey Turbaevskiv ran from the chase pack into 6th
and 7th.
In his post-race interview, Shane Reed said, “I
was very disappointed not to make the New
Zealand
Olympic team, but I sure wish the lads the best of luck on the day. I’m very happy to win the Tiszaujvaros World Cup – it is such an unbelievable
event. There is no where like this for
spectators and atmosphere. I’m looking
forward to the next World Cup in Hamburg,
which is another great event.”
Top 10
results are:
|
Place
|
Name
|
Country
|
Finish
Time
|
|
1
|
Shane
REED
|
NZL
|
1:41:34
|
|
2
|
Stephane POULAT
|
FRA
|
1:42:20
|
|
3
|
Volodymyr POLIKARPENKO
|
UKR
|
1:42:46
|
|
4
|
Ivan
VASSILIEV
|
RUS
|
1:43:02
|
|
5
|
David
DELLOW
|
AUS
|
1:43:14
|
|
6
|
Andrey
GLUSHCHENKO
|
UKR
|
1:43:22
|
|
7
|
Andrey
TURBAEVSKIY
|
UKR
|
1:43:28
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|
8
|
Igor
SYSOEV
|
RUS
|
1:43:35
|
|
9
|
Marko
ALBERT
|
EST
|
1:43:35
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10
|
Andrew
JOHNS
|
GBR
|
1:43:54
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The World Cup circuit takes a break now as everyone’s
focus turns to the Athens Olympic Games Triathlon set for 25, 26 August.
Action will start up again in September with the Hamburg World
Cup on 4, 5 September, Madrid World Cup 19 September and Gamagori
World Cup on 26 September.
Complete information from Tiszaujvaros
is available on www.triathlon.org,
including complete results, updated World Rankings, photos, and video. A 52 minute television show will be
distributed to broadcasters around the world within the coming weeks.
For more information about ITU, ITUtv.com or the
World Cup series, please visit www.triathlon.org
or contact ITU Headquarters at
email: ituhdq@triathlon.org
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