Posted: July 24, 2006

Triathlon: Whitfield wins Silver in Corner Brook

Kris Gemmell (gold medal) and Simon Whitfield (silver medal) moments after the race in Corner Brook (picture courtesy of ITU)

For the first time since Mazatlan in 2004, Simon Whitfield has once again landed on the World Cup podium. Whitfield finished second in today’s World Cup race in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Today’s men’s elite field – the deepest to date in 2006 – included 4 of the top 6 men in the World Cup Rankings, in this, the 9th World Cup of the season. Whitfield, just 10 seconds out of first, finished in 1:55:05.

With the fans roaring their approval, Whitfield ran to a second place finish and made a definitive statement to his fellow competitors. Whitfield, who had the fastest run of the day in 30:35, says it was his best run ever on this course and maybe my best run on any course period. “I’m really stoked with today’s run – it’s such a tough course and to beat a guy like Javier Gomez really means a lot. Gomez is the best runner in the world and I started to doubt myself earlier in the week, to beat a guy of that caliber was a lot of fun. It’s been a long journey back to the podium, obviously I would like to have won but I showed I can still get it done. If you can perform in Corner Brook you can perform anywhere in the world.”

Triathlon Canada’s High Performance Director, Tom Patrick, who watched the race was thrilled with Simon’s blistering run. “It’s awesome to see Simon get on the podium in his preparation for the World Championships – he’s looking good in all 3 disciplines.”

It was a bitter sweet day for the organizers in Corner Brook, on one hand they saw Simon Whitfield win a silver medal, and on the other hand it was the final chapter for this historic race in Corner Brook. After 9 years as an annual stop on the world cup circuit, the local organizing committee announced early last week that today would be the last World Cup race in Corner Brook.

The last time a Canadian athlete had a podium performance in a World Cup race in Canada was back in 2003 when Jill Savege won the gold medal. Whitfield said it was extra special to race so well knowing it was the last time for this race in Corner Brook. “This event has always been special to me – I will never forget the people of Corner Brook.”

With only 6 weeks to go before the World Championships in Lausanne, Whitfield is showing signs of peaking at just the right time. “This effort today instills a ton of confidence heading into the World Championships – the goal has always been to win the World Championships and today’s result tells me I have a chance.”

Whitfield, with a renewed commitment to the World Cup Circuit, is working hard to improve his World Ranking - with the runner-up finish today Simon collected 44 World Cup Points. Whitfield, with 2 top-10s in his two World Cup starts this season is now ranked 16th in the latest World Cup Rankings. Whitfield, from Victoria, stressed the importance of World Cup points at this time of the season. “I need to climb my way up the World Cup Rankings in order to get a good spot on the pontoon in Lausanne.”

Another Canadian who had a breakout performance is Oakville, Ontario, native Kyle Jones. Jones finished 7th in a world class field – good enough to qualify for the World Championships as an elite racer. Jones, however, will compete in the World Championships as an Under 23. Jones, now the second highest ranked Canadian on the World Cup Rankings, has finished in the top-15 in his three World Cup starts in Mazatlan, Edmonton and Corner Brook.

Patrick said we have 3 athletes who are on track to own the podium at the World Championships. “Kirsten Sweetland (junior), Simon Whitfield (elite) and Kyle Jones (U23) have a great chance to podium in their respective categories in Lausanne. It’s a great start as we get ready for our quest in Beijing.”

It was a cool rainy day in the Corner Brook valley as fifty eight men took their positions on the start pontoon for the final edition of the Corner Brook World Cup but it was Kris Gemmell, from New Zealand, who managed to hold off the hard charging local favourite Whitfield and won the race with a time of 1:54:55 – his first podium in 2006. Gemmell stole the win with a well-planned break-away late in the bike portion of the race. Javier Gomez, from Spain finished in third in 1:55:10. Gomez with his third podium this season is now ranked 2nd in the World Rankings behind American Hunter Kemper who finished 10th.

Gomez, Andy Potts (USA) and Courtney Atkinson (AUS) gained a small advantage on the swim leading a large group out of the water and up the steep incline to transition one. They were quickly caught on the bike and became a group of twenty-seven. This group cruised along until the two Belgium athletes (Peter Croes and Axel Zeebbroek) broke away on the fourth of the six lap course.

The turning point of the race was when Gemmell jumped on the Belgium riders’ wheel. These three worked extremely well together over the last two laps, stretching their lead to over two minutes by the second transition.

Once on the run it was a cat and mouse game as Gemmell went into cruise mode hoping not to blow up over the hilly and challenging run course knowing that some of the strongest runners in the sport were behind him. Chasing were Whitfield, Gomez, Ivan Rana (ESP), Hunter Kemper (USA), Andy Potts (USA) and Reto Hug (SUI). Whitfield, Gomez and Potts pulled away from the rest of the group and soon it was only Whitfield and Gomez in the chase. Potts continues to impress with a strong run to finish in fourth place. Rana rounded out the top five.

In just her first World Cup race of the season, Samantha McGlone, from Otterburn Park, Quebec, ran her way to an impressive 4th place finish today in Corner Brook. McGlone, who finished with a time of 2:06:42, had the 4th fastest run of the day with a time of 35:01, coming from the second chase group all the way back just missing the podium.

Lauren Groves, from Vancouver, had her 5th straight World Cup top-8 performance with a 7th place finish. Groves has been incredibly consistent all year and with this result she picked up 24 World Cup points, however, she remains 3rd overall in the World Cup Rankings. It’s the second time in 2 weeks Groves has finished 7th in a World Cup race in Canada – on July 9th Groves was 7th in the Edmonton World Cup. Groves finished in 2:07:05.

It was a record setting day in Corner Brook, World number 1 - Vanessa Fernandes won her 10th straight World Cup race and closed to within two wins of the all-time record set by Emma Carney. Fernandez, who won the race in a time of 2:06:02, has been on an amazing run in the last 18 months. Today’s win – her 4th of the year – matches last year’s win total of 4. So far this season, Fernandes has won World Cup races in Aqaba, Madrid, Mazatlan and today in Corner Brook. Fernandes’ main rival, Emma Snowsill, from Australia, chose to take the week off. Fernandes and Snowill have won 6 of the 9 World Cups in 2006 – in the three they didn’t win, neither athlete was on the start list. The next time the two will compete in the same race is likely the World Championships in Lausanne.

Fernandes was trailed closely by Anja Dittmer from Germany and Nadia Cortassa from Italy who finished second and third respectively. Dittmer’s second place finish moved her to #2 in the World Cup Rankings.

Edmonton’s Carolyn Murray just missed out qualifying for the World Championships as she finished 9th in 2:07:42. Any athlete who finished in the top-8 in any of the three designated qualifying races (Mazatlan, Edmonton & Corner Brook) would automatically earn a spot on the team.

Early in the swim Sarah McLarty from the US and team-mate Sarah Haskins built a lead of almost a minute and kept away from the large chase group of Fernandes, Dittmer, Cortassa, Groves, Emma Moffatt (AUS), Julie Swail (USA) and Becky LaVelle (USA). It was these two that would keep their lead on the seventeen member chase group for the entire six-lap bike course, coming into second transition over one minute ahead.

Once on the grueling run course, it was Fernandes who quickly pulled away catching Haskins and McLarty by the three kilometre mark. After this it was a race for second place. Dittmer and Moffatt went after Fernandes early but as the run went on, it was Moffatt who faded over the last two kilometres and fell to a fast approaching Cortassa.

Moffatt rounded out the top five with another good performance following her second place finish at the Edmonton world cup only two weeks ago.

Calgary’s Lisa Mensink finished in 26th position in 2:14:27; Toronto Ayesha Rollinson was 28th in 2:15:26. Alicia Kaye, Gillian Kornell, Jill Savege and Tara Ross did not finish the race.

On the Men’s side, Victoria’s Brent McMahon was 21st in 1:57:10; Hamilton’s Colin Jenkins was 28th in 1:58:39; Calgary’s Jordan Bryden was 37th in 2:00:38 and Caledon’s Sean Bechtel was 38th in 2:00:52. Mathieu Bilodeau and Aaron Webb did not finish the race.

Triathlon Canada is the National Federation for the Sport of Triathlon and Duathlon in Canada.

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