World Triathlon Corporation Announces Two More 70.3 Events
World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) continues its expansion of the Ironman 70.3 Series, with the announcement of two additions to its 2010 event series. The former Lone Star Half and Mooseman Half Triathlons boast new names as official Ironman 70.3 events.
The races, now known as Ironman 70.3 Lone Star and Ironman 70.3 Mooseman, will continue to be produced by Race Director, Keith Jordan and Endorfun Sports and become part of a series that includes nearly 40 races worldwide. Each Ironman 70.3 qualifies athletes for the Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 taking place each November in Clearwater, Fla.
Registration for both events will be available on October 1, 2009, by visiting www.ironmanlonestar.com <http://www.ironmanlonestar.com/> and www.ironmanmooseman.com <http://www.ironmanmooseman.com/> . Two other 70.3 events produced by Endorfun Sports, Ironman 70.3 Timberman and Ironman 70.3 Longhorn, will open registration on October 1 and November 1, respectively.
Keith Jordan and his team at Endorfun Sports have been producing events for the last 10 years. Jordan shares his excitement, “Our goal is to offer athletes the best triathlon experience in the world. We look forward to working with the Ironman Team and building upon the success of these events.”
Ironman 70.3 Lone Star – Taking place on April 25, 2010, athletes will experience historic Galveston Island, located on the Texas gulf coast. Situated among 242 lush, tropical acres, the Moody Gardens Hotel, Spa & Convention Center will play host to the event. With amenities including a living rainforest, an IMAX 3D Theater, aquarium and four-diamond full-service resort, there is something for the entire family. The swim will be in saltwater in the protected waters of the Offats Bayou, while the bike course will lead athletes on a flat and scenic ride along the coastline. Athletes will also see a flat run course, as it meanders through tropical gardens and towering glass pyramids.
Ironman 70.3 Mooseman – Set in Newfound, New Hampshire on June 6, 2010, this event will be the most scenic 70.3 event in New England. The swim will utilize the pristine and fresh waters of Newfound Lake. With average water temperatures hovering around 62 degrees year-round, wetsuits will be permitted. A picturesque bike course will include rolling hills and views of sprawling farmland, quaint villages and the Newfound Lake shoreline. The run course that passes by the majestic Granite Ledges will be an out-and-back format with rolling hills similar to the bike course.
At both events, professional athletes will compete for a $30,000 prize purse. A total of 50 slots for the 2010 Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 will be awarded to top age group and pro finishers.
K-Swiss Sponsoring Los Angeles Marathon
Los Angeles Marathon
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ — The Los Angeles Marathon announced today that K-Swiss has agreed to a multi-year agreement to become the Marathon’s official footwear and apparel partner. The fully integrated partnership provides California-based K-Swiss with unique activations developed jointly around the Marathon’s multiple properties, including the Los Angeles Marathon, the New Performance 5K, the Marathon Expo, and the LA Roadrunners training program.
As the Marathon’s official footwear and apparel partner, K-Swiss and the Marathon will collaborate on the creation of a full line of licensed apparel that will be sold at retail, online, at the Expo, and on race day across various “pop-up retail” touch points. K-Swiss will also drive apparel sales through owned and managed stores across Asia, providing both companies with a platform to reach an enthusiastic and growing cadre of runners overseas.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership,” said Russ Pillar, President of the Los Angeles Marathon. “K-Swiss’ commitment to quality product, innovation, and fun mirrors our own. We’re confident that, working together, we’re going to create great value for our runners as we do for one another.”
“Our partnership with the Los Angeles Marathon is a carefully-planned part of our commitment to the running market,” said David Nichols, K-Swiss Executive Vice President. “Both K-Swiss and the Los Angeles Marathon are storied entities that have retained a sense of fun. We look forward to bringing the best of the California lifestyle to the Los Angeles Marathon and its runners.”
During race weekend, K-Swiss will provide a unique trial environment at the Expo for consumers and visitors alike and also will have a special presence at the 5K and at the Marathon’s city block parties and Finish Line Beach Party.
About the Los Angeles Marathon
We inspire athletes and connect communities. With thousands of volunteers, tens of thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators, the Los Angeles Marathon is one of the largest organized road races in the country. For more information, visit www.lamarathon.com.
About K-Swiss:
Located in Westlake Village, CA, K-Swiss is a publicly traded company founded more than forty years ago. K-Swiss introduced the first all-leather tennis shoe, the K-Swiss “Classic” in 1966. Since its inception, K-Swiss has rooted itself in California Sport with an aim to be the most inspiring and innovative sports brand in the market. Today the company offers performance and lifestyle footwear and apparel for several categories under its California Sports umbrella including Tennis Heritage, California Fit (Running, Triathlon and Fitness) and California Youth. For more information about K-Swiss, visit www.kswiss.com.
SOURCE K-Swiss
Kilian Jornet Shatters Tahoe Rim Trail Record
Kilian Jornet on his way to a new Tahoe Rim Trail Record. Photo: Courtesy of Event
Young Spaniard breaks 14 year old Tahoe Rim record.
Written by: Gordon Wright
Just after dusk tonight, heralded by a squadron of pacers and mountain bikers, trail running sensation Kilian Jornet ran into Tahoe City, completing a stunning circumnavigation of the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail in 38 hours, 32 minutes.
Jornet, the two-time defending champion of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, had come to North America for the first time to challenge Tim Twietmeyer’s estimable 1995 record of 45 hours, 58 minutes.
Making the record all the more noteworthy is Kilian’s youth: he is just 21 years old, and immediately after the run, he said, “I feel great, but I feel better now that I can stop running.”
The journey wasn’t without difficulty; he took a nearly two-hour nap Monday night, and he and pacer Sean Meissner got lost at 2:30 in the morning. “We went a good two and half miles off track, and I was absolutely horrified,” said Meissner, who won the Tahoe Marathon just two days before beginning his pacing duties. “But he didn’t even blink. He just grabbed me by the shoulders, laughed and said, ‘More kilometers, more fun, Sean!’”
According to Kilian, the most difficult part of the endeavor was near the end: the last six kilometers from Echo Lake to Barker Pass, “The trail was just more difficult than I had imagined,” he noted.
Mark Kimbrough, the executive director of the Tahoe Rim Trail Association (TRTA), not only presented Kilian with a framed special edition of the Association’s TRT completion certificate, but also mustered the sort of quiet, unheralded support that made the journey a special one. TRTA members, in small groups or often alone, provided extraordinary and vocal support at some of the loneliest spots on the course.
The Tahoe Rim Trail run is part of Kilian’s Quest, a globe-spanning journey of personal trail running expression supported by Salomon. His earlier Quest attempt, on the notoriously difficult GR20 trail traverse of Corsica, resulted in similar results: he pulverized the record for the 120-mile trail with a time of 32 hours, 52 minutes.
Kilian’s journey along the Tahoe Rim Trail took him through a 165-mile (266km) loop wrapped around the largest alpine lake in North America. The trail is comprised mostly of multiuse single-track, connecting the peaks along the ridge tops of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Passing through California and Nevada, the trail ranges in elevation from 6,240 feet to 10,338, with a total elevation gain of over 21,000 feet.
Jean-Yves Couput, Director of Marketing for Salomon USA, said “Kilian’s goal is to inspire people to experience the joy of the trails and the great outdoors — and in the process he is reinventing the sport of trail running.”
Readers and bloggers can follow Kilian’s Quest through his Face book page, (facebook.com/salomonrunning), via Twitter (twitter.com/salomon_running) or on his blog (salomonrunning.com).
Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/competitor_run , for all your running news, training tips and more!
Countdown To Kona: Big Hair Day (1999)
With the Ironman World Championship set to take place 10 days from today, we take a look at back at each race from the past three decades. Today, we go back to 1999 and the year Lori Bowden established a new run course record. All of the following photos and text are taken from the book, “30 Years of The Ironman Triathlon World Championship” by Bob Babbitt.
Lori Bowden was the anointed one, the women of destiny, the It Girl. She was a force of nature, unstoppable, invincible, in the zone. She was Shirley Temple curls meets Lance Armstrong lungs. She had “The Gift,” like Paula, like Natascha. She’d win six or seven or eight more Ironman titles in Hawaii after this, just like Paula. Wow, some though. Just imagine what they’ll say about her if she actually wins one.
The hype, the buzz, the expectations surrounding the 32-year-old Canadian before the 1999 Ironman were overwhelming. The question seemed not whether she’d win, but rather “by how much?” The great Paula Newby-Fraser was retired and 1998 champion Natascha Badmann was prepping for the Olympics. And the even-faster-than-Lori running of 1997 champion Heather Fuhr was nullified by a Bowden-esque swim and so-so bike.
Someone forgot to tell 1995 Ironman champion Karen Smyers that the race was over before it began. Smyers had been away from the Ironman for two years to do childbirth and a couple of freak injuries. At 38, she’s still a complete, dangerous athlete, solid in every discipline. Though short on Ironman mileage, she came back strong in 1999 with some notable short-distance wins. On a perfect day, she can hang with Bowden, she says.
“But if its not perfect, I’ll be a sitting duck,” Smyers admits beforehand.
Of the bike first, Smyers was passed early in the run by Beth Zinkand from Davis, California. Smyers caught her at mile three and moved back into the lead. But she wasn’t feeling quite that confident about her chances.
“About this time during the run, I realized that I needed to train more,” says Smyers.
Another 3:05 marathon like the one she had put together when she won in 1985 wasn’t in the cards today – and wouldn’t win it anyway. The Bowden Express had pulled out too far out of the station.
She hauled fast enough to break Heather Fuhr’s run course record by nearly give minutes, going 2:59:16.
How to Celebrate Finishing the Rock ‘N’ Roll San Jose Half Marathon
Are you visiting San Jose for Sunday’s Rock ‘N’ Roll San Jose Half Marathon? Here’s what to do after crossing the finish line.
Written by: John Mendelsohn
Many past visitors agree that by far the most enjoyable thing to do in San Jose is rent a car and drive up to San Francisco. But don’t imagine that the city, the tenth most populous in the country, remains the Dullsville suggested in the 1960s hit in “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”; the enterprising visitor will find a wealth of things to see and do, provided he doesn’t stay too long.
Modern San Jose’s best-known tourist destination by far (because you start seeing signs advertising it as far away as Saskatchewan) is the Winchester Mystery House. The late Sarah Winchester thought her abode had come to be haunted by the ghosts of persons killed by the famous repeating rifle invented by her husband, William Witt Winchester, whose initials predated the Internet by over a century. Where you or I might have hired an exorcist, or moved to Santa Cruz, Sarah allowed a medium to convince her that she would confound the ghosts by hiring a succession of contractors to come in and construct 13 staircases to nowhere, for instance.
Over the course of 38 years of this, during which her digs came to comprise 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and 10,000 windows, we must assume Mrs. Winchester came to savor the smell of sawdust in the morning — to believe that it smelled likes victory. Today, the Winchester Mystery House is San Jose’s principal tourist attraction, found boring and expensive to view by some, but pleasurably eerie by others.
With burly bouncers who look like the lead singer of the SJ-bred Smashmouth, but more intimidating, admitting only the gorgeous and well-heeled-looking to most of the chic nitespots in San Pedro Square, the ungorgeous and proudly proletarian gravitate to Gordon Biersch to guzzle indigenous brewskis and eat. Arrive early to get a spot in the patio, where you’ll find the highest concentration of enticingly bared midriffs.
Who doesn’t love German cuisine? No? Neither do we, truth be told. Nonetheless, Teske’s Germania Restaurant Bar & Beer Garden offers not only to-die-for bratwurst, but also traditional Teutonic music, and waiters in lederhosen.
San Jose is one of America’s safest big cities. Those who find drive-by shootings and the like exhilarating will want to head for the area bounded by Story, King and Capitol.
The Tech Museum of Innovation offers some 250 mostly interactive exhibits in four themed galleries, and a notable gift shop in which you’re sure to find exactly the right gift for the propellerhead in your life. The Hackworth IMAX® Dome Theater shows really big movies.
We pause to note that in the mid-60s, San Jose was actually where most of the Bay Area’s best bands were based. You’ve heard of Count Five, whose Psychotic Reaction was a Top 5 hit in 1966. You haven’t heard of the E-Types (who actually hailed from Salinas, down in Steinbeck country, and who probably regarded San Jose as The Big City), but should have, as they were fab, gear, and all the other pimply hyperboles. The Doobie Brothers formed in San Jose. Don’t pretend you’ve not heard of Smashmouth, if only here.
The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum was one of the world’s first Egyptian museums. Founded by the Rosicrucians (sort of like the Freemasons, but even weirder) well over a 100 years old, the place is modeled after the temple at Karnak, and has the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities on the West Coast. You needn’t learn a secret handshake to be admitted.
The Richardson Romanesque portion of the architecturally schizophrenic San Jose Museum of Art downtown dates back to the late nineteenth century, while the other, golden-hued sandstone, half was built in the 90s. Employing state of the art temperature and humidity controls that allow it to share exhibits with New York’s Whitney Museum, the museum’s defiantly parochial focus is on the recent work of West Coast artists.
San Jose State University fields a football team that competes in NCAA Division IA and has produced a couple of notable NFL quarterbacks and head coaches. Stroll the same grounds a then-fresh-faced Stevie Nicks strolled before she changed the course of popular music in our time. While there, don’t miss the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies and Museum, the only North American institution devoted solely to the life and works and accomplishments of the Bard, or whatever he called himself. Enjoy original manuscripts, first editions, three fortepianos, a harpsichord, a clavichord, and a listening area.
Santana Row, a European-style pedestrian area filled with overpriced shops and restaurants, is a nice place for a traipse if you don’t mind the sort of antiseptic contrivedness you’d find at a theme park owned by the Christian right. Increase your pleasure by imagining that the area’s namesake is the Grammy-winning chicano guitarist. Increase it further by meeting the gal or dude of your dreams at one of the countless wine bars.
You needn’t schlep all the way up to the Napa Valley to sample wines. Do so in downtown SJ at J. Lohr. Once having done so, stagger over to Japantown for sushi, bearing in mind that there are also Chinese, Korean, Hawaiian, and even Mexican restaurants there, not to mention a big farmers market on Sunday mornings, and the oddly named Japantown Buddhist Church for your spiritual needs.
Your taste for the exotic thoroughly whetted now, you’ll delight in the knowledge that there are more persons of Vietnamese origin in San Jose than anywhere else in the world outside Vietnam, with the heaviest concentration of Vietnamese businesses located south of downtown along Story Road between Kelley Park and McLaughlin Ave. The Viet Museum, near the city’s Municipal Stadium, is surrounded by more restaurants than you’ll be able to shake a bowl of pho at.
Avoid the faux pho at all costs, as it is inauthentic.
San Jose, or any other California city, having a professional hockey team is approximately as loony as Utah’s professional basketball team being called the Jazz, but damned if the San Jose Sharks won’t be playing their NFL rivals Anaheim Ducks on their home ice, the HP Pavilion, the evening before the half-marathon. Exactly the sort of thing to put your adrenals on notice that they’re going to be needed!
Countdown To Kona: Cool Hand Luc
With the Ironman World Championship set to take place 13 days from today, we take a look at back at each race from the past three decades. Today, we go back to 1996 and the year Luc Van Lierde surprised many by taking the win. All of the following photos and text are taken from the book, “30 Years of The Ironman Triathlon World Championship” by Bob Babbitt.
One king was showing. They all thought the other was face down in front of him. To call or not to call? Paul Newman as Cool Hand Luke. The other inmates in shackles and stripes argued about the merits of staying in or folding. Luke’s facial expressional never, ever changed.
“Kick a buck,” he’d counter anytime someone would doubt and his hand. “Kick a buck.”
Finally, the price got too steep. He had scared them all off one at a time. As Luke pulled the pot towards him, the others scrambled to find the other king in his hand.
They never did. Nothing matched. Luke had bluffed… and won. “You’ve got nuthin’ Luke!” they yelled. “Absolutely nuthin’!” Luke smiled that “Tell-me-something-I-don’t-know” smile and piled up the bills.
“Sometimes nuthin’ can be a real good hand.”
Flash forward 30 years. In Kona, on the Big Island, Luc Van Lierde of Belgium had nuthin’. No track record, no Ironman experience, no history, absolutely no expectations. No European had ever won the Ironman. Van Lierde had never even run a marathon before.
But Cool Hand Luke and Luc Van Lierde shared more than a name. They both sported number 37, Luke on his state-issue prison fatigues, Luc in magic-marker on every limb. And they’re both absolutely fearless.
This summer was a great one for the often-injured Belgian star. He had a win in Nice, a win in Hungary at the European Championships, a second place in Muncie at the Long Distance World Championships and another second in Cleveland at the Olympic Distance World Championships. It makes for an impressive resume, and it should have made for a lot of pre-race speculation.
But Luc had never been to the Big Dance in Hawaii before. Resumes are nice, but in Hawaii they aren’t usually worth the paper they are printed on. Tiki torch fodder. Volcano droppings. Lava slop. Speed, endurance and potential are just cards dealt from the middle of the deck. It’s what you ante up come Ironday that ultimately matters.
Shoemaker Takes Men’s Title At ITU Duathlon World Championship
Jarrod Shoemaker narrowly takes the win. Photo: Paul Phillips/Triathlon.org
Jarrod Shoemaker, the 2008 Olympic triathlete from the United States, claimed the elite men’s title at the 2009 ITU Duathlon World Championship on home soil in Concord, North Carolina, USA. Shoemaker utilized a strong finishing kick to edge out Damien Derobert of France and Jurgen Dereere of Belgium. Shoemaker finished the 10km run - 40km bike - 5km run course in a time of 1 hour 49 minutes and 2 seconds.
This is Shoemaker’s second world title, after winning under 23 gold at the 2005 ITU Triathlon World Championship in Gamagori, Japan.
The 60 competitors went out strong and remained closely packed throughout the opening 10 kilometre run, with Portugal’s Sergio Silva along with Shoemaker ushing the pace. Out onto the bike, the lead group was 14 for half of the six laps, but grew to as many as 18 as four chasers bridged up over the course at Lowe’s Motorspeedway.
A crash on lap five nearly ended Shoemaker’s day, but he was able to join a chase group and worked his way back to within sight of the leaders. Starting the second run Derobert, Dereere and Silva were side by side and headed for the podium, with Shoemaker out of the top ten, close to twenty seconds back. But the American was able to pull to fourth after the first 2.5k and continued to pick off competitors until he entered the speedway complex with Dereere and Derobert and the finish line in sight.
After Shoemaker pulled slightly ahead and Dereere fell off the pace, Derobert started a kick that looked like it would take him to the top of the podium. Shoemaker, however, had other ideas and one final burst moved him past the Frenchman at the tape.
Coming into the event, Shoemaker was a darkhorse. He had a strong running resume, but having never raced a duathlon before, the jury was still out on whether he could hang with the duathlon specialists over the fast and technical course. He proved the doubters wrong.
“On the first run we decided to keep the tempo up high. I wanted to feel good. I didn’t want to push it too hard because I’ve never done this before,” said Shoemaker. “Then on the bike it was really technical, really tough. I crashed and thought my race was over then, but luckily a pack was right there and Paul Amey helped to pull me back up. I came off the bike and that’s it; you have to go as hard as you can go. These guys are great athletes. I knew Derobet would do a sprint. I saw him right next to me and I said ‘this is it’.”
Alessandro Fabian of Italy won the U23 men’s title, followed by Antoine Duvivier of Belgium and Tiago Silva of Portugal.
Another American in Lukas Verbicas won the junior men’s world title, just beating out recently crowned world junior triathlon champion Mario Mola from Spain. Carlos of Chavez of Mexico was third.
ITU Duathlon World Championship
Concord, N.C. - Sept. 27, 2009
10km run, 40km bike, 5km run
Men
1. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1:49:01
2. Damien Derobert (FRA) 1:49:03
3. Jurgen Dereere (BEL) 1:49:09
4. Sergio Silva (POR) 1:49:26
5. Victor Manuel Del Corral Morales (ESP) 1:49:28
Rowbury, Baddeley Take Fifth Avenue Mile Titles
Start of the women's race. Photo: Laurel Wassner
New York, September 26, 2009—Both pre-race favorites were in contention with 200 yards left in the men’s and women’s professional races at the 2009 Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile, and they both looked poised to win—but so did a pack of other runners in each race, and the contests came down to a matter of inches.
The women went first, at 12:45 p.m. Shannon Rowbury, 25, of San Francisco, CA, pulled away from 2008 winner Lisa Dobriskey of Great Britain and 2006 winner Sara Hall of Mammoth Lakes, CA, to win by less than one second in 4:23.3. The race was so close that Dobriskey, Hall, and fourth-place finisher Christin Wurth-Thomas of Springdale, AR, all ran 4:23 as well; Dobriskey was given second place over Hall by less than one-hundredth of a second.
The early pace was set by 2008 1500-meter Olympian Erin Donohue of Haddonfield, NJ. She kept the lead for almost three-quarters of the mile, and then Hall came from sixth place to the front. Rowbury and Dobriskey, the 2008 IAAF World Championships bronze and silver medalists at 1500 meters, needed all the sprint speed they could find to reclaim the top two spots from Hall.
Shanno Rowbury won the women's race. Photo: PhotoRun.net
Rowbury, who was a close second to Dobriskey in last year’s race, was glad to be back. “This is the best way for me, especially as an American runner, to end my season,” she said. “I’ve been living in southwest London and racing since the beginning of July, and I’m just really happy to be back in front of an American crowd.” Dobriskey, too, had been trying to get back to America: “I enjoyed my experience here so much last year, and I wanted to do the New Year’s Eve run but I was injured, so NYRR rescheduled my flight for the [Reebok Grand Prix], and I was injured again, so they rescheduled my flight again and finally here I am.” Hall was in New York for two reasons: On Thursday, she and her husband, U.S. Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall, announced the formation of The Hall Steps Foundation, a charitable initiative that will fund programs to create a better life for youth living in poverty. “I’m actually sad to be going home today,” she said. “It’s been such a great week here in New York.”
No one who’d seen the women’s race would have guessed that a race just as close would follow. But as the professional men reached the three-quarter-mile mark 20 minutes later, six Olympians and a 20-year-old Kenyan could have been covered by a beach umbrella. At the front of the phalanx was the favorite, two-time 1500-meter Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat of Tucson, AZ, who had lost here last year by one-tenth of a second. Running nearly stride-for-stride with Lagat from the start was Kenya’s Boaz Lalang; one step back were Oregon Track Club teammates and 5000-meter World Championships finalists Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky.
Then Australian 10,000-meter record-holder Collis Birmingham came up on the far right and took the lead. He held it for about 100 meters before Lagat and Lalang pushed ahead again, and the pair looked like one-two finishers—until U.S. Olympic 1500-meter Olympian Leonel Manzano, started his trademark finishing kick and passed Birmingham on the outside. He, Lagat, and Lalang flew toward the finish three abreast. Who would take it?
Andy Baddeley won the men's race. PhotoRun.net
Andy Baddeley. The British miler, who had looked calm and relaxed throughout the race, made a perfectly timed shift to top speed with less than thirty yards left and passed all three of the leaders. He crossed the line with a pump of his fists in 3:51.8 to beat Lalang (3:52.07) by two-tenths of a second; Manzano (3:52.24) and Lagat (3:52:74) followed.
Baddeley turned out to have run exactly according to plan. “I know a lot of people start to go with 200 meters left in a road mile,” he explained, “but for me that’s too early…even 100 to go is too early. I was waiting until the last 50.” Manzano was humble: “I didn’t really know what to expect in this race because it was my first road mile. I was just trying to get into the mix.” He thanked the awards-ceremony crowd in English and Spanish, after which Baddeley remarked, “I’m just struggling to speak English right now.” As for Lalang, who clearly has a big future in this race and elsewhere, his acceptance speech was succinct: “I like being in New York. It’s a good place.”
The pro races capped a day in which 3,793 runners, from age 8 to age 93, ran in a total of 15 divisions. Because the inaugural event was run on September 26, 1981, this was the Fifth Avenue Mile’s 28th birthday.
Story Courtesy of New York Road Runners: NYRR.org
Frintova Takes Women’s Duathlon Title In Concord
The 2009 ITU Duathlon World Championship title went to triathlon regular, Vendula Frintova of the Czech Republic who used her kick to nip Sandra Levenez of France by four seconds in an exciting finish. Ana Burgos of Spain was third. Frintova finished in a time of 2 hours 18 minutes and 18 seconds.
Levenez produced the fastest opening 10-kilometre run of the day, as she and Samantha Warriner of New Zealand pressed the pace early one. A 40k bike in and out of the Lowe’s Motorspeedway didn’t provide much drama with one large group coming together and staying together; the athletes were just waiting for the final five kilometre run.
And it did come down to the run, with the top nine second run splits exactly matching the order of finish for the top nine athletes. Frintova’s 15:57 was the fastest though and gave the Czech athlete her first world title.
“I’m really, really happy. I’m a specialist for triathlon, but my season was up and down. This is my best result for the year,” said Frintova. “The race was really hard, especially the first run for me. I was suffering. I didn’t really expect to be the fastest at the end. The bike was quite calm, no one wanted to go hard, so we were just sitting back and waiting for the second run.”
Evgenia Sukhoruchenkova of Russian claimed the Under23 women’s championship, followed by Kinga Lauf of Hungary.
Great Britain’s Sophie Coleman was crowned world junior duathlon champion with teammate Vicky Graves in second. Marjon Van Der Wansem of the Netherlands finished third.
ITU Duathlon World Championship
Concord, N.C. - Sept. 27, 2009
10km run, 40km bike, 5km run
Women
1. Vendula Frintova (CZE) 2:08:17
2. Sandra Levenez (FRA) 2:08:22
3. Ana Burgos (ESP) 2:08:30
4. Ruth Van der Meijden (NED) 2:08:40
5. Anne Haug (GER) 2:08:47
Release provided by Triathlon.org
Shoemaker Takes Men’s Title At ITU Duathlon World Championship
Jarrod Shoemaker narrowly takes the win. Photo: Paul Phillips/Triathlon.org
Jarrod Shoemaker, the 2008 Olympic triathlete from the United States, claimed the elite men’s title at the 2009 ITU Duathlon World Championship on home soil in Concord, North Carolina, USA. Shoemaker utilized a strong finishing kick to edge out Damien Derobert of France and Jurgen Dereere of Belgium. Shoemaker finished the 10km run - 40km bike - 5km run course in a time of 1 hour 49 minutes and 2 seconds.
This is Shoemaker’s second world title, after winning under 23 gold at the 2005 ITU Triathlon World Championship in Gamagori, Japan.
The 60 competitors went out strong and remained closely packed throughout the opening 10 kilometre run, with Portugal’s Sergio Silva along with Shoemaker ushing the pace. Out onto the bike, the lead group was 14 for half of the six laps, but grew to as many as 18 as four chasers bridged up over the course at Lowe’s Motorspeedway.
A crash on lap five nearly ended Shoemaker’s day, but he was able to join a chase group and worked his way back to within sight of the leaders. Starting the second run Derobert, Dereere and Silva were side by side and headed for the podium, with Shoemaker out of the top ten, close to twenty seconds back. But the American was able to pull to fourth after the first 2.5k and continued to pick off competitors until he entered the speedway complex with Dereere and Derobert and the finish line in sight.
After Shoemaker pulled slightly ahead and Dereere fell off the pace, Derobert started a kick that looked like it would take him to the top of the podium. Shoemaker, however, had other ideas and one final burst moved him past the Frenchman at the tape.
Coming into the event, Shoemaker was a darkhorse. He had a strong running resume, but having never raced a duathlon before, the jury was still out on whether he could hang with the duathlon specialists over the fast and technical course. He proved the doubters wrong.
“On the first run we decided to keep the tempo up high. I wanted to feel good. I didn’t want to push it too hard because I’ve never done this before,” said Shoemaker. “Then on the bike it was really technical, really tough. I crashed and thought my race was over then, but luckily a pack was right there and Paul Amey helped to pull me back up. I came off the bike and that’s it; you have to go as hard as you can go. These guys are great athletes. I knew Derobet would do a sprint. I saw him right next to me and I said ‘this is it’.”
Alessandro Fabian of Italy won the U23 men’s title, followed by Antoine Duvivier of Belgium and Tiago Silva of Portugal.
Another American in Lukas Verbicas won the junior men’s world title, just beating out recently crowned world junior triathlon champion Mario Mola from Spain. Carlos of Chavez of Mexico was third.
ITU Duathlon World Championship
Concord, N.C. - Sept. 27, 2009
10km run, 40km bike, 5km run
Men
1. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1:49:01
2. Damien Derobert (FRA) 1:49:03
3. Jurgen Dereere (BEL) 1:49:09
4. Sergio Silva (POR) 1:49:26
5. Victor Manuel Del Corral Morales (ESP) 1:49:28
