Findlay makes it three for three
She remains on top of the World Championship Series rankings.
Edmonton’s Paula Findlay remains undefeated this year at the ITU’s World Championship Series, thanks to her win today at Kitzbuhel.
Findlay added to her wins at Sydney, and Madrid by once again running away from the top contenders in the field.
The USA’s Sarah Haskins open up the 1.5 km wetsuit swim with an 18:23 clocking, which put her 21 seconds ahead of the next fastest swimmer (Britain’s Helen Jenkins), and 1:02 ahead of Findlay.
Luckily for Findlay, she rode with a chase group of 19 athletes that eventually caught the lead duo of Haskins and Jenkins during the last lap of the 40 km ride.
The run turned out to be a similar result to what occurred in Madrid. After shredding away Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI), Emma Moffatt (AUS), and Sarah Groff (USA), it came down to Jenkins and Findlay once again. Knowing that she didn’t have the sprint speed to keep up with Findlay, Jenkins tried a different tactic than Madrid by picking up the pace with 2 km to go to shake loose but Findlay held firm. With the finish line in sight, Findlay turned on the afterburners to surge away from Jenkins for the win in 2:05:52. Jenkins got second (2:05:56), and Groff picked up third (2:06:27) with one of the best runs of her career.
“I’m just thrilled again, that was a really hard race,” said Findlay to the ITU Media. “I have so much respect for Helen, I really didn’t think I could stay with her, I was running at maximum the whole way.”
Part of the second chase group on the bike, Montreal’s Kathy Tremblay finished 32nd (2:09:04). Vancouver’s Lauren Campbell dropped out after the first lap of the swim and tweeted this soon afterwards – “Not my day, need to get my health back on track. Made tough decision 2 go home for 3 weeks, need 2 get healthy. Back for Hamburg & rest of summer. But first, out 4 squad celebratory dinner!”
Elite Women
1. Paula Findlay (CAN)Â 2:05:52
2. Helen Jenkins (GBR)Â 2:05:56
3. Sarah Groff (USA)Â 2:06:27
4. Emma Moffatt (AUS)Â 2:06:31
5. Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI)Â 2:06:41
6. Laura Bennett (USA)Â 2:06:44
7. Ai Ueda (JPN)Â 2:07:00
8. Erin Densham (AUS)Â 2:07:03
9. Svenja Bazlen (GER)Â 2:07:10
10. Nicky Samuels (NZL)Â 2:07:11
32. Kathy Tremblay (CAN)Â 2:09:04
