| The ITU Tongyeong
World Cup took place in Korea today in
perfect race conditions as the air temperature was 21 degrees Celsius,
no wind and the water temperature was 20.2 degrees Celsius.
These warm temperatures called for a non-wetsuit swim.
In the Elite women’s race,
Canada's Jill Savege led the entire 1500m swim section exiting a full
10 seconds ahead of Pip Taylor of Australia.
Liu Yun from China making her World Cup debut was third out of the water.
Savege, Taylor, Anabelle Luxford of Australia, Former World Champion Leanda Cave
of Britain, Lui and Tara Ross of Canada were away to form the lead pack on
the 8 lap – 40 km bike.
Jill Savege was content to wait for
the chase group led by Leanda Cave and Pip Taylor. A very large chase pack was 80 seconds back
from the leaders. Canada’s Carol Montgomery was in this chase
pack. However, the lead group
increased their lead with almost every lap. With
a number of great runners in the race, it was not surprising to see
a number of the athletes running incredibly fast run splits.
The two women from the Czech Republic, Vendula Frintova and Lenka Radova,
had the fastest run splits of the women’s race. Leanda Cave won the 2004 ITU Tongyeong elite women's
triathlon in superb style, taking first place from Pip Taylor of Australia
by over 40 seconds. In third
place was Jill Savage of Canada.
In
the Elite Men’s race, Sean Bechtel of Canada led the
entire men’s field through the 1.5 km swim section with Australia’s Bryce
Quirk on his heels. Quirk’s international
experience showed as he passed Bechtel in the first transition followed
by Canada’s Brent
McMahon and Paul Tichelaar, Ukraine’s Andrei
Glushchenko and Spain’s Javier
Gomez.
The two young
Canadians Tichelaar and Bechtel were trying to help their countryman,
Brent McMahon, have a top 10 finish so they he would be chosen for the
Canadian Olympic Triathlon Team. Therefore,
these two triathletes stayed in the lead pack and carried a great deal
of the load but were joined by Australia’s Simon
Thompson and Chris Hill, Quirk, Gluschenko, Kazakhstan’s former
World Champion Dimitry Gaag, and Gomez.
Newcomers to World Cup racing Wayne
Rice of South Africa and Si Eun Moon of Korea were also in the lead pack. Anthony Parish of Australia crashed and had to withdraw from the
competition.
The chase pack led by Tyler
Butterfield was over 4 minutes back, but was making time on the leaders
during the final few laps. Heading into the
last lap of the 10 km run, Quirk led while Chris Hill dropped back and
was overtaken by Andriy Glushchenko.
McMahon was leading a chase back with
Seth Wealing of the USA and Great Britain’s Richard Stannard. In
the end, it was World Cup leader Dimitry Gaag who solidified his strangle-hold
on the World Cup as he outstprinted Bryce Quirk in the final 20 metres
to take the win at the line.
Seth Wealing had a great race and outran
Simon Thompson to take the final step on the podium.
Both events were covered
exclusively live on www.itutv.com,
the ITU's brand new on line coverage medium. The coverage was a roaring
success with live commentary from Barry Shepley, exclusive pictures
from around the course as the action happened, text updates from on
site reporters, live timing- giving coaches and athletes access to split
times. All this coverage was neatly packaged into the itutv player,
giving real time coverage of the event. With the advent of www.itutv.com,
the International Triathlon Union is the only sports federation to deliver
live coverage of this manner and quality, with all our media being produced
in-house. The ITU is proud to be leading the way in on-line sports coverage,
and continually strive to push the boundaries of technology to bring
our viewers the latest from the world of triathlon. The upcoming World
Cups in Edmonton, Corner Brook and Salford will all be covered exclusively
live on www.itutv.com.
The next World Cup event is in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on, July 11th,
2004. Edmonton was the host city of the2001 ITU Triathlon
World Championships. It will
be the last chance for some athletes to make their Olympic teams.
For more information about
the ITU Tongyeong World Cup, please see www.triathlon.org
or contact ITU Headquarters at ituhdq@triathlon.org. |
