Sarah McLarty and Elspeth McGregor after the race
Canadian Elspeth McGregor won the silver medal yesterday at the 2006 ITU Aquathlon World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. McGregor, from Vernon BC, completed the swim/run course in 31 minutes and 23 seconds.
In a preview of this weekend’s ITU Triathlon World Championships, two hundred athletes dawned their wetsuits for a 1,000 metre swim in the green waters of Lake Geneva. This was followed by a two-lap, five kilometre run along the Lausanne boardwalk in front of the Olympic Museum.
American Sarah McLarty used her swimming strength to win her first-ever Aquathlon World Championships in a time of 30:49. Great Britain’s Maria Barrett finished third taking the final podium spot in 32:10.
As expected, McLarty used her open water swimming skills to gain an early and insurmountable lead of 53 seconds after the swim segment in Lake Geneva. Second out of the water were McGregor and Emma Davis from Great Britain. But there was no catching McLarty as she continued to hold her gap for the two-lap run, cruising home to make back-to-back wins for the USA after Sheila Taormina’s triumph in Gamagori, Japan last year.
Barrett was able to run herself into third place after coming out of the swim 30 seconds down.
It was Great Britain’s Richard Stannard who claimed the gold medal in the elite Men’s competition in a time of 27:59, just beating out Daniel Lee Chi Wo (28:03) from Hong Kong and Clarke Ellice (28:06) from New Zealand.
Complete results are available from: Triathlon.org
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