Posted: June 16, 2004

Triathlon: Canadian Savege finishes third in World Cup triathlon

Canadian triathlete Jill Savege finished third in the women's competition at the World Cup triathlon in South Korea on the weekend.

Compatriot Brent McMahon finished eighth in the men's competition, earning a spot on the Canadian Olympic team.

Savege, who had already earned a spot on Canada's Olympic team, finished in two hours, one minute, 14 seconds.

Briton Leanda Cave won the women's event in 2:00:19, and Australian Pip Taylor finished second, a little less than a minute behind.

Savege led the swimming portion of the race by about 50 metres, but her rivals caught up. On the road, Cave and Taylor ran neck-and-neck until Cave sprinted ahead to victory.

Savege was pleased to be running in the hot and humid conditions of South Korea.

"It's great to be in this heat, because it will be this hot in Athens," she said.

In the men's competition, Dimitry Gaag of Kazakhstan strengthened his hold on the overall World Cup lead by out-sprinting Australian Bryce Quirk in the final 20 metres to cross the finish line first in 1:50:27.

American Seth Wealing finished third, and McMahon finished eighth in 1:51:54.

Canadians Paul Tichelaar and Sean Bechtel led the pack of 20 triathletes with five laps remaining in the cycling portion of the race, with McMahon just behind.

McMahon emerged in the running portion of the race, however, leading the chase pack 15 seconds behind the lead group.

Tichelaar finished 19th and Sean Bechtel finished 25th.

Some 71 elite athletes from 20 countries competed in the event, in which they had to swim 1.5 kilometres, bike 40km and finish with a 10km run.