Africa Triathlon

Loretta Harrop of Australia who is the current ITU World Cup   leader after winning the Mooloolaba World Cup and placing second in Honolulu,   set a fearsome pace through the 2 lap, 1500m swim segment and then road the   entire 6-lap, 40 kilometre bike course along, increasing her lead as the kilometres   ticked away. The 28oC air temperatures with an energy-sapping 76% humidity appeared   to do nothing to slow the feisty Aussie.
  ITUs newly introduced primes for the first out of the swim, and fastest   through laps 2 and 5 of the bike were also easily snatched by Harrop.
  The only ones to challenge Harrop through the swim and bike were Laura Bennett   of the USA and the 2000 World Champion, Nicole Hackett of Australia. They stayed   in contact through the swim and then teamed up for the bike, but made little   time on the leader, dropping back to 1:20 at the bike to run transition.
  Once on the run, Harrops energy faded, as her win on the difficult Mooloolaba   World Cup course 2 weeks ago started to take its toll. Hackett and Bennett made   little impact on Harrops lead through the first lap of the 3 lap run,   but the great runners in the event such as Great Britains Michelle Dillon   and Japans Akiko Sekine and Kiyomi Niwata started to move through the   field, making up for many lost moments during the swim and bike.
  But the surprise of the day came from Samantha Warriner of New Zealand. Due   to lack of funding after the Athens Olympic Games, Warriner was forced to return   to a full time teaching job and squeeze her training in between classes. Facing   a 45 second deficit after the swim, Warriner was lucky to catch a hard working   group on the bike that formed the second chase pack behind Hackett and Bennett.   She came off the bike with almost a 2 minute deficit on Harrop, but once on   her feet she quickly set her sights on the leader and by the end of the first   lap she found herself in 2nd place and in the hunt for her first podium finish,   let along a World Cup title.
  On the second lap of the run Warriner caught Harrop and ran for home, occasionally   glancing nervously over her shoulder for the fast approaching Japanese duo of   Niwata and Sekine, as first Harrop and then Bennett and Hackett fell further   back in the field.
  Warriner made a little history in Ishigaki by grabbing the first World Cup title,   not only for herself, but for any woman from New Zealand. Kiyomi Niwata was   2nd and Akiko Sekine was 3rd, much to the delight of the home-country fans.   Nicole Hackett posted her best World Cup performance since giving birth to her   first child last year, and Michelle Dillon rounded out the top 5.
 
  Visit   the Ishigaki event page for full results and photo galleries.
 
  Click here   for women’s live photo gallery
 
  The mens event featured a great match-up between the Aussie and American   men, with World Cup leader Hunter Kemper coming head to head with the likes   of Greg Bennett, Simon Thompson, Courtney Atkinson, Craig Alexander and Bryce   Quirk.
  Kemper took an unprecedented lead through the first lap of the swim until his   team-mate Andy Potts overtook him and exited the swim with a 15 second lead   over Kemper, who was followed closely by Tsukasa Hirano of Japan, Australian   team-mates Chris Hill and David Dellow, Dirk Bockel of Luxembourg, and American   team-mates Joe Umphenour, Matt Reed and Doug Friman.
  A huge pack of over 20 men emerged from the swim to bike transition and stayed   together until the 2nd lap when the newly implemented prime lap really shook   things up. Dirk Bockel out-sprinted Dan Alterman of Israel in a thrilling attack   and things were never the same after that. By the 4th lap David Dellow and Junichi   Yamamoto of Japan had broken away from the big pack as Seth Wealing of the USA   worked desperately hard at the front of the now disorganized big pack to create   some semblance of working order. By the bell lap, Switzerlands Didier   Broccard had pulled Chris Hill and Yuichi Hosoda up to Dellow and Yamamoto and   they stayed together through the final lap.
  Broccard was the first off the bike and onto the run followed by Hill, Dellow,   Hosoda and Yunichi, as Matt Reed entered the transition all alone a few seconds   later. He was followed by Hunter Kemper at the front of the big pack.
  Chris Hill moved to the front for the first 2 kilometres, but was quickly reeled   in by team-mates Atkinson, Thompson, Alexander and Quirk, along with Andrew   Johns of Great Britain and Hunter Kemper.
  Broccard took a brief turn at the front, as did Matt Reed, but then a trio of   Atkinson, Kemper and Plata got together and emerged through the field to take   over the lead. They stayed together through the final lap of the run with Atkinson   dropping the American challengers in the final kilometers. Kemper retained his   role at the top of the World Cup standings by placing second, with Plata 3rd.   Aussie team-mates Craig Alexander and Simon Thompson were 4th and 5th.
 
  The podium awards featured a photo moment with the Dr. Ohama, Mayor of Ishigaki   to commemorate the 10th staging of the Ishigaki World Cup and his slogan for   the World Cup, Go For World Peace.
  An interesting side-note to the 10 years of World Cup racing on this idealistic   island in the South China sea is that of the 60 World Cup medal awarded over   the 10 years, Australian athletes have won an impressive 28 of them, and all   but 5 of the gold medals have gone to that country which has produced more World   Cup and World Champions than any other. Courtney Atkinson played a role in keeping   those odds alive today.
  The events live coverage on www.triathon.org was enjoyed by thousands   around the world featuring ITUs voices of Triathlon, Jackie Gallagher   and Barrie Shepley.
 
  Visit   the Ishigaki event page for full results and photo galleries.
 
  Click   here for men’s live photo gallery