Posted: July 29, 2007

Triathlon: Whitfield has Bronze Medal Performance at Triathlon World Cup

SALFORD, England – Simon Whitfield of Victoria enjoyed a joyous return to the site of his 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medal today by winning bronze at the Salford BG Triathlon World Cup. Whitfield was in the front group for the entire 1,500 metre swim, 40 kilometre bike and 10 kilometre run but could not hang onto number one ranked Javier Gomez of Spain and 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Brad Kahlefeldt of Australia as they pulled away from the former Olympic champion in the final stages of the run. The new father moves up to second place in the overall world rankings with his bronze medal. Fresh off of his ninth world cup win of his career last weekend in Austria, Whitfield now shifts focus to the Triathlon World Championships in Germany at the end of August. World Champion is the only title missing from the 32 year olds impressive career. Number one ranked Javier Gomez of Spain keeps his top spot after the day’s fastest swim and a devastating 29:56 minute final run gave him the win today. Gomez led from start to finish for the fifth world cup win of his young career. 2007 Salford BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Men Results GOMEZ, Javier (ESP) 1:51:47   KAHLEFELDT, Brad (AUS) 1:51:59 +:12 WHITFIELD, Simon (Victoria) 1:52:04 +:18 33. BAILLARGEON SMITH, Andre Paul (CAN) 1:54:25 +2:38 41. JENKINS, Colin (Hamilton) 1:54:52 +3:05 57. JONES, Kyle (Oakville) 2:00:02 +8:15 In the Women’s event, Vancouver’s Lauren Groves finished strong in ninth place with young Kirsten Sweetland of Victoria in 19th. Both women were no match for the fleet-footed Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal who ran away from the field for her 17th career world cup win, second most wins of all-time. With her top-20 finish, Sweetland remains in third place overall in the world rankings. In typical fashion, Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal ran away from the field to win in a time of 2 hours 2 minutes and 59 seconds. The current European champion was 19 seconds faster then last year’s winner Samantha Warriner of New Zealand, who finished in second. Athens Olympic champion Kate Allen of Austria rounded out the podium in third, another 6 seconds behind. 2007 Salford BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Women Results FERNANDES, Vanessa (POR) 2:02:59   WARRINER, Samantha (NZL) 2:03:17 +:19 ALLEN, Kate (AUT) 2:03:23 +:25 9. GROVES, Lauren (Vancouver) 2:04:33 +1:35 19. SWEETLAND, Kirsten (Victoria) 2:05:42 +2:44 25. MURRAY, Carolyn (Edmonton) 2:06:12 +3:14 Full results are available at: . Up next: The 2007 BG Triathlon World Cup series travels to Tiszaujvaros, Hungary for round eleven on August 11th. The next day is the 2007 ITU Elite Team Triathlon World Championships where countries go head-to-head in a new and exciting race format. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest