Posted: July 10, 2006

Triathlon: Groves and Tichelaar finish 7th in Edmonton

The most consistent Olympic Distance Canadian triathlete in 2006 has been Lauren Groves and her 7th place finish today in the Edmonton World Cup only reinforces this point. Groves broke the 2-hour barrier on this tough course and finished with a time of 1:59:09.

Groves has been incredibly consistent if not spectacular half-way through the World Cup season. A fourth in South Africa, a fifth in Japan, a sixth in Mexico and a seventh here today solidifies her top-5 World Cup Ranking. Lauren picked up 24 World Cup points today and is now ranked #3 in the most recent World Cup Rankings. Groves, from Victoria has participated in eight races in 2006 and has finished in the top-8 in all them. Groves has won twice this year; including last week at the HSBC National Championships/Continental Cup Race and at the ITU Roatan Bay Islands Pan American Cup.

Kathy Tremblay, from Montreal, finished in 11th position in 2:00:00. This is Tremblay’s second World Cup event of the season – she had her first ever podium finish in May at the Mazatlan World Cup when she finished third.

Penticton’s Jill Savege crossed the finish line in 2:00:05, 5 seconds behind Tremblay. Savege has had 3 decent results in 2006 – 9th at the Commonwealth Games, 10th at the Mazatlan World Cup and 12th in Edmonton today. Savege is hoping to find the form she had in 2004 when she had 5 top-10 World Cup performances.

Emma Snowsill, from Australia, won the 2006 Edmonton BG Triathlon World Cup leading from start to finish. Snowsill took the lead early in the swim and kept her lead finishing in a time of 1:56:49. Emma Moffat, from Australia, finished second, in only her second world cup ever, and New Zealander Samantha Warriner taking third. Their times were 1:57:38 and 1:57:51 respectively.

"Not my best feeling day. Didn’t have the ‘twang’ to keep the gap going.” said Snowsill after being caught on the fourth lap of the bike. “I always like to race myself and not others.”

Snowsill led out of the swim and was on her own for the first four laps of the six lap bike course until she was caught by the large chase pack containing Moffat and Warriner. This group continued to put time into the rest of the field and came out of transition together on to the run course.

The group quickly spread out on the run as the sky opened up and the rain began to fall. Snowsill quickly moved to the front and Moffatt was the only one able to go with her. Moffatt was quickly dropped but was running strong. The race was on for the remaining podium spot. Warriner and Andrea Whitcombe ran together for almost the entire 10 kilometres until Warriner made her move with one kilometre to go.

Snowsill, the defending ITU World Champion, is quickly climbing the World Cup Rankings. Snowsill has participated in only two World Cup events (including today) and has won them both. Snowsill is now ranked 7th on the World Cup Rankings only 19 points out of second.

On the Men’s side, local favourite Paul Tichelaar did not disappoint the hometown fans as he was the top Canadian in 7th spot at 1:48:07. This result was good enough to meet the criteria to qualify for the World Championships in Lausanne later this summer. Tichelaar has definitely had a memorable season to date – an 8th place finish at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and a victory at the Pan American Championships in Brazil and you can see why Tichelaar is the highest ranked Canadian on the ITU Points list and the World Cup Rankings.

Kyle Jones, from Oakville, had his second top-15 World Cup performance of the season as he finished the race in 1:48:54. Jones picked up 7 World Cup points with his 14th place finish in Mazatlan on May 7th.

The race for the podium for the men was a battle right to the finish line. Olympic gold medallist Hamish Carter (NZL) once again showed his class by taking the Edmonton World Cup in impressive style. Carter held off U23 world champion Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) who had an amazing run to beat fellow countryman Hunter Kemper into second position. The three men were within 6 seconds of one another with Carter in at 1:47:33, Shoemaker 1:47:37 and Kemper 1:47:39.

Shoemaker had a break-through race in this Edmonton race with his first world cup podium. The American gave it all on the run, his strongest discipline, making it a race to the wire to the elated cheers of the gathered crowd of 10,000 fans.

“I had the swim I wanted, the bike I wanted. I had a terrible transition but on the run I was finally able to have my race, “stated Shoemaker.

Complete results: Women   Men.

Triathlon Canada is the National Federation for the Sport of Triathlon and Duathlon in Canada.

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