Canada's Kirsten Sweetland - Photo Credit: Delly Carr/triathlon.org
Kirsten Sweetland has just won Canada’s first ever gold medal in the Women’s Junior World Championships.
Sweetland won the race in a time of 1:05:58. The 19-year-old said she had "an almost perfect race'' to claim the gold medal from Bermuda's Flora Duffy and German Rebecca Robisch.
"It was almost perfect. I would have liked to have had a bigger lead after the bike but my run totally surprised me today,'' Sweetland said.
Triathlon Canada’s High Performance Director, Tom Patrick who was at the race says it’s not a huge surprise that Kirsten won today. “Kirsten’s win is the reward following a very long period of training and domestic performance excellence. She delivered a very professional effort today and demonstrated the kind of form and poise required to achieve a podium performance in such a competitive field.”
It was a performance in total contrast to a year ago when Sweetland was unable to finish in her debut world championship appearance.
"This is the first time I have finished a world championship and I've won it. I'm ecstatic,'' she said.
Sweetland, from Victoria, looked great in all three disciplines (750km swim, 20km bike and 5km run) and becomes the second Canadian to ever win a medal at the junior World Championships. Kirstie Otto won a bronze medal in the Women’s junior event in 1992. Sweetland had the best swim split in 9:20 and the best run split in 18:09.
Sweetland was in the lead group from the starter’s horn until the finish as she cruised home to defeat the second place Duffy by 9 seconds. Robisch was able to erase a 60 second deficit after the swim with the fastest bike split of the day, pulling herself into the final podium place.
Complete results are available from Triathlon.org.
Source: Triathlon Canada
Triathlon Canada is the National Federation for the Sport of Triathlon and Duathlon in Canada.
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