Posted: March 18, 2006

Athletics: Triathlon Becomes All About The Run

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

MELBOURNE (18-Mar) -- Australians Emma Snowsill and Bradley Khalefeldt swept the gold medals at today's Commonwealth Games triathlon, but for readers of this publication, that wasn't the real story.

Since Olympic-style triathlons began allowing competitors to draft in the cycling leg of the competition a few years back, it has become almost impossible to win without being a strong runner. Indeed, it was the best runners who won all six of today's medals.

When formally organized triathlons began in the mid-1970's drafting on the cycling portion of the race was forbidden to ensure that each athlete made an honest and individual effort throughout the race. Long distance triathlons, like the famed Hawaii Ironman, still forbid drafting and a strong cyclist can build up a sizable lead, enough to cushion him or her against the attack of a strong runner in the final leg.

But in Olympic-style triathlon, the kind held here which consistes of a 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, and 10 km run, as long as an athlete can emerge from the water somewhere near the leaders, they can just latch onto the back of the bike pack, conserve their energy in the slipstream created by the pack, and save themselves for a fast run.

Such was the case in today's races. In the women's triathlon, twelve women were within 15 seconds of each other after the bike leg, while in the men's race 16 men finished the bike leg within nine seconds of each other. That left the running segment to determine the overall finish positions.

On the women's side, women's winner Snowsill had easily the fastest run, 33:51, and the top-5 overall finishers were also the top-5 runners, except that third place Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand was third overall with the fourth-fastest run, while her teammate Debbie Tanner was fourth overall with the third-fastest run.

In the men's race, gold medalist Kahlefeldt was easily the fastest runner in 30:27, and the top-8 overall finishers fell in the exact same order as they they did in the running section, alone.

The order of the three events in triathlon was born out of safety concerns, but is now mostly a matter of tradition. In the original Ironman, the swim was put first because the athletes would be less exhausted and less likely to drown at the outset of the competition. It's been that way ever since.

Triathletes are beginning to even look more like runners. They are generally smaller and lighter than the well-muscled Dave Scott/Mark Allen prototypes of the Ironman 80's. Gold medalist Snowsill, who was also the world champion in 2003 and 2005, is a feathery 48 kg (106 lbs.), similar to the best distance runners.

Comment on this story.

Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest