Africa Triathlon

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, Annabel 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   Savege 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.