| Emma Snowsill and Tim Don Win Season’s Opener |
 Emma Snowsill and Tim Don Win Season’s Opener Honolulu, Hawaii, 16 April 2005: for immediate release: Australia’ s Olympic silver medalist Loretta Harrop went to the front from the starter’s horn, and led through the 2 lap 1500m swim course staged at world famous Waikiki Beach. Her Aussie team-mate Emma Snowsill, Great Britain’s Anneliese Heard and USA teammates Julie Swail, Laura Bennett, and Barb Lindquist dogged Harrop until the swim to bike transition. Once onto the bike Harrop powered her way up Diamond Head Road leaving all contenders in her wake, increasing the distance to the chase pack on every lap. The original chase group of 5 included Swail, Lindquist, Heard, Bennett, and Snowsill, but the hill took its toll on the group as Swail and Bennett fell off the pace. Meanwhile USA Olympic bronze medalist. Susan Williams, Germany’s Joelle Franzmann, Australia’s Annabelle Luxford organized a second chase pack which picked off the stragglers and overtook the chase pack on the 4th lap of the 5 lap course. As they completed the 40km bike course, Harrop’s lead had increased to 2 minutes and she appeared to have the captured another World Cup victory. It took Emma Snowsill 2.5km of the 10km run to eat up the lead and overtake Harrop. Snowsill increased her lead on each of the remaining kilometers, spurred on by the thundering cheers from the thousands of fans and tourists who lined the course. Harrop finished 2 minutes back with Annabel Luxford just 3 seconds behind. Joelle Franzmann was 4th and Canada’s Samantha McGlone put together a very impressive bike ? run combo to place 5th. Top 10 results are: Place LastName First Name Finish Time 1 Snowsill Emma 02:04:39 2 Harrop Loretta 02:06:35 3 Luxford Annabel 02:06:38 4 Franzmann Joelle 02:07:24 5 McGlone Samantha 02:08:13 6 Lindquist Barbara 02:08:27 7 Williams Susan 02:08:27 8 Abram Felicity 02:08:57 9 Whitcombe Andrea 02:09:15 10 Carfrae Mirinda 02:09:37 In the men’s event the world class field that dove from the start platform was a wonderful spectacle to witness. USA’s Andy Potts posted the fastest 1500 m swim time of the day in 18:49 to exit first. Close behind him were German team-mates Jan Frodeno and Maik Petzold, Vladimir Polikarpenko from the Ukraine who was 2nd in the ITU World Ranking last year, France’s Stephane Poulat and Hunter Kemper of the USA. A large pack exited onto the 5 lap, 40km bike course with everyone nervously awaiting the first attempted break. Poulat tried to go it alone on the first lap, and made some gains on the pack, but it wasn’t until Seth Wealing of the USA managed to bridge up to him that things started to get interesting. Wealing and Poulat increased their lead on the large chase pack each time they powered up the big hill, and by the bike to run transition they had a lead of over 2 minutes. Wealing was first onto the 4 lap, 10km run course, with Poulat starting to fade after his brave effort on the bike. Matt Reed from the USA, who is the tallest man on the World Cup circuit, was the first to appear on the horizon in the hunt for the leaders. At one point it appeared as if this was his day to capture a World Cup title as his form and pace was perfect to overtake Wealing. However, there were a few others in the field who were on pace to run sub-32 minute 10km runs, not a simple feat in the heat of Hawaii. USA’s Hunter Kemper and Victor Plata, Tim Don from Great Britain and Courtney Atkinson from Australia, along with Terrenzo Bozzone, New Zealand’s triple World Junior Champion, started to move in on Reed as he caught Wealing and didn’t allow him much time at the front. But it was the wiry Tim Don who can perform well under any conditions who moved to the front and stayed there for the final lap. Kemper and Atkinson were able to stay with him, but Don sprinted ahead to take the win. Kemper was 2nd, just 1 second back. Terenzo Bozzone posted his best performance in World Cup racing with a 4th and Matt Reed held on for an impressive 5th. 1 Don Tim 01:54:23 2 Kemper Hunter 01:54:24 3 Atkinson Courtney 01:54:31 4 Bozzone Terenzo 01:54:38 5 Reed Matthew 01:54:50 6 Plata Victor 01:54:56 7 Thompson Simon 01:55:01 8 Wealing Seth 01:55:06 9 Polikarpenko Volodymyr 01:55:16 10 Potts Andy 01:55:30 The event’s live coverage on www.triathon.org did have some technical difficulties because of the thousands of people who logged on to follow the event. Our apologies for these difficulties ? it will be rectified before next weekend live coverage of the second stop on the World Cup circuit… the ITU Mazatlan World Cup. For complete stories, results and the award winning photos of Delly Carr are available on www.triathlon.org. For more media information email ituhdq@triathlon.org -----end----- |