2004 ITU TONGYEONG WORLD CUP, Tongyeong, South Korea, June 12 2004
The ITU Tongyeong World Cup took place in Korea today in perfect race conditions
as the air temperature was 21 degrees Celsius, no wind and the water temperature
was 20.2 degrees Celsius. These warm temperatures called for a non-wetsuit swim.
In the Elite women’s race, Canada’s Jill Savege led the entire 1500m swim section exiting a full 10 seconds ahead of Pip Taylor of Australia. Liu Yun from China making her World Cup debut was third out of the water. Savege, Taylor, Annabel Luxford of Australia, Former World Champion Leanda Cave of Britain, Lui and Tara Ross of Canada were away to form the lead pack on the 8 lap – 40 km bike.
Jill Savege was content to wait for the chase group led by Leanda Cave and Pip Taylor. A very large chase pack was 80 seconds back from the leaders. Canada’s Carol Montgomery was in this chase pack. However, the lead group increased their lead with almost every lap. With a number of great runners in the race, it was not surprising to see a number of the athletes running incredibly fast run splits.
The two women from the Czech Republic, Vendula Frintova and Lenka Radova, had the fastest run splits of the women’s race. Leanda Cave won the 2004 ITU Tongyeong elite women’s triathlon in superb style, taking first place from Pip Taylor of Australia by over 40 seconds. In third place was Jill Savege of Canada.
In the Elite Men’s race, Sean Bechtel of Canada led the entire men’s field through the 1.5 km swim section with Australia’s Bryce Quirk on his heels. Quirk’s international experience showed as he passed Bechtel in the first transition followed by Canada’s Brent McMahon and Paul Tichelaar, Ukraine’s Andrei Glushchenko and Spain’s Javier Gomez.
The two young Canadians Tichelaar and Bechtel were trying to help their countryman, Brent McMahon, have a top 10 finish so they he would be chosen for the Canadian Olympic Triathlon Team. Therefore, these two triathletes stayed in the lead pack and carried a great deal of the load but were joined by Australia’s Simon Thompson and Chris Hill, Quirk, Gluschenko, Kazakhstan’s former World Champion Dimitry Gaag, and Gomez.
Newcomers to World Cup racing Wayne Rice of South Africa and Si Eun Moon of Korea were also in the lead pack. Anthony Parish of Australia crashed and had to withdraw from the competition.
The chase pack led by Tyler Butterfield was over 4 minutes back, but was making time on the leaders during the final few laps. Heading into the last lap of the 10 km run, Quirk led while Chris Hill dropped back and was overtaken by Andriy Glushchenko.
McMahon was leading a chase back with Seth Wealing of the USA and Great Britain’s Richard Stannard. In the end, it was World Cup leader Dimitry Gaag who solidified his strangle-hold on the World Cup as he outstprinted Bryce Quirk in the final 20 metres to take the win at the line.
Seth Wealing had a great race and outran Simon Thompson to take the final step on the podium.
Both events were covered exclusively live on www.itutv.com, the ITU’s brand new on line coverage medium. The coverage was a roaring success with live commentary from Barry Shepley, exclusive pictures from around the course as the action happened, text updates from on site reporters, live timing- giving coaches and athletes access to split times. All this coverage was neatly packaged into the itutv player, giving real time coverage of the event. With the advent of www.itutv.com, the International Triathlon Union is the only sports federation to deliver live coverage of this manner and quality, with all our media being produced in-house. The ITU is proud to be leading the way in on-line sports coverage, and continually strive to push the boundaries of technology to bring our viewers the latest from the world of triathlon. The upcoming World Cups in Edmonton, Corner Brook and Salford will all be covered exclusively live on www.itutv.com.
The next World Cup event is in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on, July 11th, 2004. Edmonton was the host city of the2001 ITU Triathlon World Championships. It will be the last chance for some athletes to make their Olympic teams.
For more information about the ITU Tongyeong World Cup, please
see www.triathlon.org or contact ITU Headquarters at ituhdq@triathlon.org.
Related Event: 2004 Tongyeong ITU Triathlon World Cup
Results: Elite Men | |||
---|---|---|---|
1. | Dmitriy Gaag | KAZ | 01:50:27 |
2. | Bryce Quirk | AUS | 01:50:28 |
3. | Seth Wealing | USA | 01:50:34 |
4. | Javier Gomez Noya | ESP | 01:50:34 |
5. | Richard Stannard | GBR | 01:50:48 |
6. | Andriy Glushchenko | UKR | 01:51:17 |
7. | Chris Hill | AUS | 01:51:36 |
8. | Brent McMahon | CAN | 01:51:44 |
9. | Wayne Rice | RSA | 01:51:54 |
10. | Clark Ellice | NZL | 01:52:04 |
Results: Elite Women | |||
---|---|---|---|
1. | Leanda Cave | GBR | 02:00:18 |
2. | Pip Taylor | AUS | 02:01:03 |
3. | Jill Savege | CAN | 02:01:14 |
4. | Annabel Luxford | AUS | 02:02:27 |
5. | Vendula Frintova | CZE | 02:02:49 |
6. | Lenka Zemanova | CZE | 02:02:55 |
7. | Andrea Whitcombe | GBR | 02:03:18 |
8. | Ai Ueda | JPN | 02:04:21 |
9. | Carol Montgomery | CAN | 02:04:37 |
10. | Lauren Groves | CAN | 02:04:48 |