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Paula Findlay and Kyle Smith top the short-distance specialists to take Challenge Beijing wins

Non-drafting Olympic distance race goes to long-distance specialists

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon

It was the middle-distance specialists who proved to have the combination of bike power and speed required to win the non-drafting Olympic-distance race in Beijing today. Canada’s Paula Findlay (pictured above racing at T100 San Francisco) and New Zealand’s Kyle Smith each earned a hefty $20,000 pay check for their wins over a speedy field that included a number of short-distance specialists, including Olympic silver-medalist Julie Derron (SUI).

Challenge returns to mainland China in style as impressive field lines up for Olympic-distance race in Beijing

Findlay runs away from Byram

Great Britain’s Sian Ainsley led the way out of the water with Derron on her heels, but once they got on the bike it was the middle-distance specialists who rode clear as Findlay and Byram cruised to the lead. The pair would hit T2 with a lead of 1:36 on Australia’s Ellie Salthouse 1:36 down.

Out on the run Findlay and Byram would run together through the early stages of the run before Findlay finally broke clear to take the win by 20 seconds. Derron managed to run her way to the final spot on the podium, but was over three minutes behind the first two.

🥇 Paula Findlay (CAN) – 1:57:36
🥈 Lucy Byram (GBR) – 1:56:56
🥉 Julie Derron (SUI) – 1:59:57

Smith celebrates birthday with win

It’s been a great year for the Kiwi with a number of half-distance wins and a pair of runner-up finishes at the last two T100 races in San Francisco and London. It was South African Henri Schoeman who was first out of the water with Australia’s Aaron Royle right behind. Once on the bike Smith and Royle took the early lead, only to see Germany’s Frederik Funk power to a 50-second lead into T2.

On the run, though, it was Smith, American Marc Dubrick (on a borrowed bike as his didn’t make it to China in time) and Schoeman who would find themselves dueling through the run. Smith would eventually pull clear to celebrate his birthday in style with the win.

🥇 Kyle Smith (NZL) – 1:47:00
🥈 Marc Dubrick (USA) – 1:47:08
🥉 Henri Schoemann (RSA) – 1:47:23