Posted: September 19, 2007

Triathlon: Don suffers broken elbow following crash at Olympic Games test event

Britain’s 2006 Triathlon World Champion Tim Don suffered a set back to his Olympic qualification plans following a crash at the Beijing BG Triathlon World Cup last Sunday. Don had exited the 1500m swim in close contention with the leaders, but his race ended within ten minutes of the 40km bike leg as Syrian athlete Omar Tayara crashed in front of the Brit, bringing him down. Compatriot Will Clarke had managed to swerve around the Syrian, however Don was not so lucky as he saw the incident too late and crashed into the stricken bike, catapulting him over his handlebars. Since flying back into the UK on Monday, Don has seen a specialist who diagnosed the injury as a fractured elbow. He is expected to miss six weeks of full training while the bone heals. Chinese TV, which filmed the event live, captured this image of Don following the incident: Spain’s Javier Gomez went on to win the race ahead of Australia’s Courtney Atkinson and Bevan Docherty from New Zealand. Will Clarke finished a creditable seventh with Stuart Hayes in thirteenth. For further information please see BritishTriathlon.org. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest