Javier Gomez closes the World Championships with a win at home

On April 27th, Javier Gomez made his return to racing on the World Triathlon Series (WTS) with a silver medal at WTS Bermuda. Less than a week later, he was at the ITU World Long Distance Championships in his hometown of Pontevedra. Marked as one of the pre-race favourites, Gomez was going up against Terrenzo Bozzone (NZL) and a host of European talent.

Gomez led from start to finish. He spent all day out front in the lead group and used the fastest run split of the day (1:49:50) to take the win. The Spaniard won his ninth world championship in 5:05:39. He’s won five ITU WTS world titles, two 70.3 world championships, the Xterra world title and now an ITU long course world championship. Second place went to Pablo Dapena Gonzalez in 5:11:21. Slovenia’s Jaroslav Kovačič (5:12:02) finished in third.

The 2018 European Triathlon Union (ETU) champion, Alexandra Tondeur (BEL), took the women’s title in Pontevedra. She crossed the line in 5:48:01, ahead of Spaniard Judith Corachan Vaquero (5:50:06) and Anna Noguera (BEL) (5:51:33).

On the same day, the aquabike age group athletes joined those completing the long-distance triathlon. In total, over 50 Canadian athletes competed on May 4th. Here are Canada’s top ten results:

• Aquabike
  • Danika Robson 3rd in F20-24
  • Isaac Chung 1st in M20-24
  • Nick Patenaude 2nd in M25-29
  • Sarah Hamadi 9th in F30-34
  • Holly Hopkins 10th in F30-34
  • Samantha Hoft 5th in F35-39
  • Melissa Cooper-Vanderbolt 10th in F40-44
  • Paul Blatter 9th in M40-44
  • Barbara Petryshen-Kozak 6th in F45-49
  • John Turnbull 7th in M50-54
  • Elizabeth Seiffert 5th in F55-59
  • Keith Kendall 10th in M55-59
  • Thea Jacobs 3rd in F60-64
• Long Course
  • Hannah Zhang 5th in F20-24
  • Nathan Blanchard 7th in M20-24
  • Line Vaillancourt 6th F40-44
  • Jacques Adam 9th in M65-69