Rina Hill Rocks New Zealand - Photo Credit: Delly Carr/triathlon.org
Rina Hill of Australia and Andy Potts of the United States
have just won the final leg of 2006 BG Triathlon World Cup
series on a tough day in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Windy
and blustery conditions made for a difficult day for many
of the 103 athletes toeing the start line.
In the women’s event, Hill’s time of 2:03:18 was only 6
seconds faster then Anja Dittmer of Germany who was able
to finish in second place. Rounding out the podium only a
few steps behind was Laura Bennett of the United States.
“I haven’t had a win in seems like a decade,” said the
thirty-seven year old mother of two, who has only raced
three world cups in the past two years. “Every time I
make a comeback I think, ‘Well how competitive am I going
to be’. To come back and win is unbelievable.”
Hill has not been on top of the world cup podium since
2003, where she won the New York world cup. Since then
she has only one second place in Edmonton, Canada in 2004.
Dittmer and Bennett battled in a sprint finish for the
silver medal and valuable points as the close of the
season brings with it a US$250,000 bonus pool for the
final world cup standings. Both Dittmer and Bennett moved
up in the year-end rankings with Dittmer finishing third
and Bennett fourth.
“Anja and I had a little bet on the sprint finish”, stated
Bennett, who grabbed her fourth bronze medal of the year.
“She absolutely smoked me.”
“I will give her [Laura] a drink tonight because I won,”
responded Dittmer. “I started to laugh just before the
finish when I pulled ahead.”
Forty-six women from sixteen countries entered the
Tasmanian Sea this morning in heavy winds, which would
plague the athletes all day, to start the fifteenth
installment of the newly renamed 2006 BG Triathlon World
Cup series. The chilly 16 degree water temperature would
mean wetsuits allowed over the opening 1-lap, 1,500 metre
swim. Despite the advantage of the wetsuits, choppy
conditions broke the women into multiple distinct groups
heading into the first transition.
“When I woke up this morning I thought, ‘This is going to
be a tough day’ because of the wind, rain and cold,
“commented Hill. “Triathlon is a tough sport.”
Annabel Luxford (AUS) and Sarah Haskins (USA) led out of
the first transition and opened up a quick 15 second gap
between themselves and the first chase group. Although
growing at first, the gap was erased by the chase group
that included Hill, Dittmer, Bennett, Emma Moffatt (AUS),
Andrea Hewitt (NZL) and Ainhoa Murua (ESP).
After swallowing the two leaders the lead group put the
hammer down to pull away from the chasers. Top
contenders Samantha Warriner (NZL), Lauren Groves (CAN)
and Andrea Whitcombe (GBR) were stuck in the chase pack
and were out of contention heading into second transition
over two minutes down.
Out onto the four-lap, 10 kilometre run course, it was
Hill, Dittmer, Bennett and Moffatt who immediately pulled
away from the rest of the group. By the 5 kilometre mark
Moffatt had dropped off and it was down to three. Hill
led the entire run leg and despite thoughts that she would
tire out pulled away with 2 kilometres to go and easily
took the win.
“I felt very good on the run,” commented Hill on her
decision to stay in front. “I was listening to the other
girl’s breathing and thought that I would test them a
little. They didn’t respond.”
Moffatt was able to hang on to fourth position while
Luxford was able to take fifth, finishing her first world
cup since her early season injury.
In the men’s event, Potts was able to lead from start to
finish employing his strong swim and bike skills to pull
away from the rest of the field with eventual silver
medalist Marko Albert of Estonia. Potts’ time of 1:50:37
was 55 seconds quicker then his next closest rival Albert
and a further 1 minute and 28 seconds ahead of third place
Tony Moulai of France.
“I definitely put my best foot forward today,” said Potts.
“I always try to employ this strategy in every race. When
it works, it’s amazing.”
The 30-year old Potts worked his strategy to a ‘T’,
leading on the swim and pushing the bike with the
Estonian. Potts moves into third place in the end of
season rankings with his win here today, behind Javier
Gomez of Spain and Volodymyr Polikarpenko of the Ukraine.
“Sometimes when you two bad seasons in a row you lose
confidence,” said the 2004 Olympian Albert. “Today I
proved I can do it. The game plan today is the only game
plan that works for me.”
Albert, who is traditionally not a strong runner, has not
been on the world cup podium since 2004, where he finished
second in Brazil, while this was Moulai’s first world cup
podium of his career.
Fifty-seven men from twenty-one countries ran into rough
waters in cool 15 degree air temperatures as rain began to
fall in the coastal city. As expected it was
ex-collegiate swimmer Andy Potts of the United States to
take an early lead on the one lap, 1,500 metre swim with
Olympian Marko Albert of Estonia. These two came out of
the water together ahead of the rest of field containing
many of the big guns including Moulai, Bevan Docherty
(NZL), Polikarpenko (UKR), Kris Gemmell (NZL), Matt Reed
(USA), Greg Bennett (AUS) and Filip Ospaly (CZE)
“When we came out of the water there was just two of us,
“commented Albert. “We both knew what we had to do and we
just started pushing.”
Quickly out on the 6-lap hilly and windy bike course it
was the American and Estonian riding away from the large
chase group, using each other and their bike strength to
mount a two minute lead heading into the second
transition. Only Reed and teammate Brian Fleischman (USA)
made an attempt to catch the two leaders, going out on
their own to try to bridge the gap on the fourth lap. They
managed to come off the bike 67 seconds down.
“I just kept think, ‘Just keep going, just keep going. If
it works great. If it doesn’t then you can’t say you
didn’t try’,” stated Potts.
Out onto the four-lap, 10 kilometre run course it was
Potts to run away from Albert. Albert was able to hang on
to finish second as the real battle was behind him for the
bronze medal.
Local favourite Docherty and France’s Moulai managed to
pull away from the large chase group and reel in Reed and
Fleischmann after 8 kilometres. From there it was down to
the last 500 metres before Moulai made his break, pulling
away from the 2004 Olympic silver medalist.
“I was very surprised with my run,” commented Moulai.
“This morning I watched the New Zealand – France rugby
match. We [France] lost and I definitely wanted my
revenge today.”
“When you run with the Olympic silver medalist you have
bad thoughts in your head,” continued Moulai. “I want to
thank New Zealand for a beautiful race and a wonderful
welcome.”
Docherty was able to finish fourth with Czech athlete,
Ospaly rounding out the top five.
2006 New Plymouth BG Triathlon World Cup results – Elite Women
1. HILL, Rina (AUS) 2:03:18
2. DITTMER, Anja (GER) 2:03:24
3. BENNETT, Laura (USA) 2:03:27
4. MOFFATT, Emma (AUS) 2:03:46
5. LUXFORD, Annabel (AUS) 2:04:49
6. HASKINS, Sarah (USA) 2:04:55
7. CORTASSA, Nadia (ITA) 2:04:56
8. MURUA, Ainhoa (ESP) 2:05:04
9. DAY, Tameka (AUS) 2:05:14
10. HEWITT, Andrea (NZL) 2:05:15
2006 New Plymouth BG Triathlon World Cup results – Elite Men
1. POTTS, Andy (USA) 1:50:37
2. ALBERT, Marko (EST) 1:51:31
3. MOULAI, Tony (FRA) 1:52:04
4. DOCHERTY, Bevan (NZL) 1:52:26
5. OSPALY, Filip (CZE) 1:52:43
6. POLIKARPENKO, Volodymyr (UKR) 1:52:51
7. FLEISCHMAN, Brian (USA) 1:52:55
8. FLEURETON, Cedric (FRA) 1:53:13
9. REED, Shane (NZL) 1:53:19
10.JASKOLKA, Marek (POL) 1:53:30
Full results at: Results.
Complete rankings at: Rankings.
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