Suunto athletes Alexander Brukhankov and Helen Jenkins fought thrilling duels at the Kitzbühel stage of the ITU World Championship Series, coming second only to commanding performances from race winners Alistair Brownlee and new triathlon sensation Paula Findlay.
In cold, wet and windy conditions in the picturesque Austrian town of Kitzbühel on June 18-19, the weekend threw up some interesting talking points for the ITU championship.
The men’s race on Saturday was defined by who was and wasn’t on the start list. With the European Championships next weekend, Suunto Ambassadors Javier Gomez (SPA) and Jan Frodeno (GER) decided to conserve their energies and sat the race out. Also out was Jonathan Brownlee (GBR), deciding like Gomez that he could relinquish his lead in the series.
Chris McCormack (AUS), fascinatingly, was in. The 1997 World Champion and two-time Ironman champion made his highly anticipated return to ITU racing at the age of 38 in the hope of making the London Olympic Games next year.
However, the comeback wasn’t to be memorable and McCormack was the most high-profile casualty in the tough conditions. Only 2 weeks after his last Ironman race he was last out of the water and four minutes down on the lead pack before he pulled out, the Australian will hope to meet expectations in the next races. Here is a great interview with Makka before the race: http://wcs.triathlon.org/multimedia/video/a_pre-race_chat_with_chris_mccormack_in_kitzbuehel/
With the big names out, it was left to Alistair Brownlee (UK) to take centre stage, making a lung-bursting performance look effortless. Fastest in the swim, equal fastest on the bike, Brownlee then blitzed the field in the run to finish over thirty second clear on 1hr 51min 54sec. After claiming his first ever win in Kitbühel in 2009 and finishing in 40th place in 2010, his win was testament to the unpredictable results that Kitbühel has given in recent seasons.
Suunto user Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) performed well to break out from a thrilling battle for podium places at the 5km mark to finish second. Sven Riederer (SUI) held on in the busy scramble for third place, despite pressure from William Clarke (GBR), Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) and Laurent Vidal (FRA).
Brownlee is now leading the 2011 rankings after three rounds, on 1690 points. Brukhankov leaps to second with 1663. Javier Gomez and Jonathan Brownlee moved down to third and fourth, with Riederer moving up to fifth.
In the women’s race on Sunday, Paula Findlay (CAN) became the most successful woman in the history of the women’s ITU World Championship, with her fifth win from her last six races.
The win was far from inevitable however, with Suunto Ambassador Helen Jenkins (UK) pushing Findlay at every stage, even having a lead at the bike stage at one point of 30 seconds. Findlay however has been dominating the final running stages and, as in the last ITU race in Madrid, she managed to pull away from Jenkins in the final 200m to finish four seconds clear on 2hr 5min 52sec.
“I’m thrilled. Wow, that was a really hard race. So much respect to Helen. She pushed the whole last lap and I really didn’t think I could stay with her. I was just running at maximum the whole way.”
Despite missing out on the win, Jenkins was nonetheless pleased to push Findlay to her limits.
“After Madrid, I knew I wasn’t going to beat her over the last 400m and over the last 2.5km I was just really trying to push on and break her, and I could see she was working, but in the last few hundred meters I just couldn’t catch her,” Jenkins said.
“I’m happy with second, I wish I hadn’t waited now, but it’s racing you had to give it a go, Sarah is so strong and I thought we could get there. I’m just happy with the run, I felt awful on the first lap, but came good.”
Thirty seconds behind, Sarah Groff (AUS) won a tight battle for third against Emma Moffatt (AUS) while Suunto’s Ai Ueda (JAP) finished a more than respectable seventh, after running through a large portion of the field to finish strongly.
With a perfect 800 points from each of the three races, Findlay now has a commanding 2400 points in the series. Riveros Diaz is in second with 1912 and Andrea Hewitt, who finished 11th in Kitzbühel, is in third, with Laura Bennett and Jenkins close behind.
Watch see summary of the women race: http://wcs.triathlon.org/multimedia/video/2011_kitzbuhel_women_tricast/
and men’s race: http://wcs.triathlon.org/multimedia/video/2011_kitzbuehel_men_tricast/