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Kitzbühel, Austria - Today in the mountain town of Kitzbühel, Austria,
Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield of Victoria claimed his second world
cup title of the season, ninth of his career, in a dramatic sprint finish
with former European Champion Frederic Belaubre of France and 2006
Commonwealth Games champion, Brad Kahlefeldt of Australia. Whitfield nipped
the two top contenders at the line in a finish time of 1 hour 42 minutes and
56 seconds. With his ninth career world cup win, the 6-time Canadian
champion moves into third place for most wins of all-time.
Although Whitfield was the only Canadian medalist on the day, young phenom
Kirsten Sweetland, also of Victoria, managed another top-10 finish for her
budding career, with an eighth place.
In the Men’s event, Whitfield would push the pace from start to finish,
exiting the water in first position, something he has never done before, and
even trying to breakaway from the 50-man, lumbering bike group at one point.
Whitfield, who has never been known as a strong swimmer, has been working
extremely hard on his swim as of late and showed his progression today.
The only other Canadian man on the start line was recent Pan American Games
silver medalist Brent McMahon of Victoria. McMahon would pull out of
today’s race during the run segment, citing fatigue.
2007 Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Men Results
| 1. | WHITFIELD, Simon (CAN) | 1:42:56 | |
| 2. | BELAUBRE, Frederic (FRA) | 1:42:57 | +:01 |
| 3. | KAHLEFELDT, Brad (AUS) | 1:43:01 | +:05 |
In the Women’s event, reigning world Junior champion and 2007 world cup
winner Kirsten Sweetland of Victoria was the top Canadian in eighth place.
Sweetland was up with the leaders for the entire race until the final three
kilometres on the run, when she could no longer keep up with the hectic
pace, dropping off to a top-10 finish.
The only other Canadian woman in the field, Lauren Groves of Vancouver,
failed to make the front on the bike, losing over two minutes to the leaders
and was unable to recover.
Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand led out of the opening swim in a time of 19:44
and would never look back as the former Under23 World Champion looked in
fine form winning the 2007 Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup in a sprint
finish with local Austrian athlete Eva Dollinger. Hewitt ran away from
Dollinger and the rest of the field in the final metres of the 10-kilometre
run course to claim the first world cup victory of her career in a time of 1
hour 54 minutes and 31 seconds.
2007 Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Women Results
| 1. | HEWITT, Andrea (NZL) | 1:54:31 | |
| 2. | DOLLINGER, Eva (AUT) | 1:54:34 | +:02 |
| 3. | SAMUELS, Nicky (NZL) | 1:54:45 | +:13 |
| 8. | SWEETLAND, Kirsten (CAN) | 1:55:27 | +:56 |
| 22. | GROVES, Lauren (CAN) | 1:57:17 | +2:45 |
Full results are available at: Triathlon.org.
Up next:
Next weekend, July 29th, the 2007 BG Triathlon World Cup series travels to
Salford, England for round ten. Canadians expected are: Simon Whitfield,
Brent McMahon, Colin Jenkins, Kyle Jones, Andre Paul Baillargeon-Smith,
Kirsten Sweetland, Lauren Groves and Carolyn Murray
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