World Triathlon

The only thing more brilliant than the sunshine in New Plymouth was the performance put on by the top triathletes in the world as they closed off the best year of World Cup Triathlon racing.

Click here for full results.

Click here for official photo gallery (slides will rotate automatically)

A strong American women’s team took the swim out hard with Barb Lindquist in her 40th and final World Cup moving to her familiar place at the front, with Becky Lavelle and Laura Bennett on her heels.

A group of 11 were in contact at the end of the 1.5km swim and solidified themselves as the leaders as they swept through the swim to bike transition and onto the 6 laps on the bike.  All of the who’s who of the sport were in that lead group including World Ranked #1 Annabel Luxford and the current World Champion Emma Snowsill - both of Australia.  Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal, the young Portuguese phenomenon was also with the leaders, along with Germany’s Anja Dittmer and the 3 Americans who led through the swim.

Vendula Frintova of the Czech Republic and Michelle Dillon of Great Britain led the chase group from the water, but were over 1 minute back at the start of the bike.

The group of 11 were pushed by the trio of Americans who showed true cycling tactics as they kept the lead role at the front of the pack and stole all 4 of the bike primes.

Once off the bike the real match-up between Emma Snowsill and Vanessa Fernandes - the 2 great runners in the sport- took shape.  Both Snowsill and Luxford were slow out of the bike to run transition, which gave Fernandes a chance to sprint away. Snowsill caught Fernandes before the end of the 1st kilometer, but on this day was not able to match the young Portuguese stride for stride.  Snowsill finally succumbed to Fernandes’ power and slowly drifted back to Luxford.

As Fernandes powered away from the field, Snowsill and Luxford played a cat and mouse game through the final laps of the run.  In the end, Fernandes won by over 1 minute 30 as she claimed her 7th World Cup victory in a row.  Luxford held off Snowsill for second and by doing so also won the overall World Cup title for the year.  Fourth was Anja Dittmer, the 2004 World Cup title winner who put in her best performance of the year, with Laura Bennett of the USA rounding out the top 5.

The Top 10 results were:
1:FERNANDES, Vanessa:POR: 2:04:51
2:LUXFORD, Annabel:AUS:2:06:04
3:SNOWSILL, Emma:AUS:2:06:11
4:DITTMER, Anja:GER:2:06:53
5:BENNETT, Laura:USA:2:08:02
6:LAVELLE, Becky:USA:2:08:04
7:FRINTOVA, Vendula:CZE:2:08:27
8:SWAIL, Julie:USA:2:08:42
9:DILLON, Michelle:GBR:2:08:52
10:HASKINS, Sarah:USA:2:09:02

High resolution photos from the New Plymouth World Cup are available - ITU Media Photographer Delly Carr’s photos are available - please contact Adrienne@triathlon.org
 
Please visit www.triathlon.org for complete results and photos.

Full Rankings are available on the rankings page.

The ITU World Cup Series is a 16 race series contested by the leading Olympic distance triathletes in the world.  All events are contested over the Olympic distance of 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run.  For more information about ITU Events please contact: ituhdq@triathlon.org