World Triathlon Championships, Vancouver Canada

by optic | June 8, 2008 at 12:02 pm

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Javier Gomez of Spain and Helen Tucker of Great Britain are the new ITU Triathlon World Champions.

Javier Gomez won the men's race with a strong surge on the second of three laps on the run and grew his lead for the rest of the run winning comfortably. He finished in the top group of 15 after the bike but pushed ahead on the run with only Bevan Docherty of New Zealand and Reto Hug of Switzerland able to follow. Those two ended up filling out the podium placings for the elite men in that order.

Canada's Simon Whitfield dove across the finish line to place 6th, crashing to the ground. Fellow Canadian Paul Tichelaar was close behind in 9th. Both finished with the lead pack on the bike but couldn't follow the surge laid down by the top three.

Update: Based on Sunday's performance, Whitfield, Tichelaar and Colin Jenkins have been named to the Canadian Olympic Triathlon team. Whitfield was an automatic qualifier based on his top 8 results, the other two were appointed by the Canadian high performance committee. The women's team will be announced in the next two weeks.

Helen Tucker of Wales was an unexpected winner of the Elite Women's race. The race was marked by a two person break that opened a large gap of up to two minutes on the field in the bike leg. That lead held up to the finish with Tucker defeating Sarah Haskins of the United States in a sprint finish.

Daniela Ryf of Switzerland won the U23 women's race, while Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain is the new Men's U23 world Champion.

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The weather all week has been unseasonably cold and the swimmers suffered through the cold and choppy waters, some dropping out in the first part of the swim. For the final Sunday the under 23s had a difficult cold morning. Later in the day the swim course had to be adjusted as the tide slowly went out during the day.

The men were introduced at 16:00 and the first 100 yards of the swim were marked more by a kind of splashing run than a swim... think Chariots of Fire in wet suits... but the roads dried up and the speed increase on the technical bike course was evident.

Men's Final Results:
Gold – Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:49:48
Silver – Bevan Docherty (NZL) 1:50:12
Bronze – Reto Hug (SUI) 1:50:17
4th – Hendrik de Villiers (RSA) 1:50:18
5th – Matthew Reed (USA) 1:50:28
6th – Simon Whitfield (CAN) 1:50:28
7th – Igor Sysoev (RUS) 1:50:28
8th – Tony Moulai (FRA) 1:50:31
9th – Paul Tichelaar (CAN) 1:50:32
10th – Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1:50:34

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Women's Final Results:
Gold – Helen Tucker (GBR) 2:01:37
Silver – Sarah Haskins (USA) 2:01:41
Bronze – Samantha Warriner (NZL) 2:02:32.85
4th – Erin Densham (AUS) 2:02:32.96
5th – Emma Moffatt (AUS) 2:02:34
6th – Felicity Abram (AUS) 2:03:35
7th – Sarah Groff (USA) 2:04:09
8th – Kate Allen (AUT) 2:04:14
9th – Debbie Tanner (NZL) 2:04:24
10th – Vanessa Fernandes (POR) 2:04:35

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The Setup:

The 2008 World Triathlon Championships are being held in Vancouver's West End Today. It's the final of four days of competition and includes the under 23 Men's and Women's competition as well as the Elite Women at 13:00 PST followed by the Men's competition at 16:00 PST. These competitions have Olympic ramifications as they effect both national selections as well as country seedings that determine the number of athletes each country can send to the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.

Update: Helen Tucker wins the Elite Women's race as Great Britain takes 2 of 3 (so far) at the ITU World Triathlon Championships. The elite women's race was marked by a two person break that opened a large gap of up to two minutes on the field in the bike leg and the lead held to the finish with Helen Tucker of Great Britain defeating Sarah Haskins of the United States in a sprint finish. Earlier today the Britain Alistair Brownlee took the men's U23 race.

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World Triathlon Championships, Vancouver Canada

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