firstoffthebike.com - Races

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

ITU HK run and won

In the elite women’s field, Niwata overcame a 40-second deficit after the swim and clocked the fastest run in the field to handily take gold, her first ITU title since winning gold at the Tokyo Asian Cup in 2005. It was Niwata’s first race since the Beijing Olympic Games where she finished ninth. She’s been racing on the ITU circuit consistently since 1997 and is arguably the most accomplished Japanese triathlete ever. Aussie Sarah Crowley came across the line for silver, her third medal is as many races this year on the Asian Cup circuit. After finishing fourth in her age-group at the Hamburg world championships, Crowley has made the jump to the elite ranks. Czech Olympian Vendula Frintova took the bronze, duplicating last year’s feat.

OSIM 2008 Hong Kong ITU Triathlon Asian Cup
Elite Women – Final Results

1. Kiyomi Niwata (JPN) 02:11:52
2. Sarah Crowley (AUS) 02:12:27
3. Vendula Frintova (CZE) 02:13:11

For the elite men, the choppy water a small group of 4 led by Jimmy Sear broke from the main pack at the first turn buoy. The chase group was a further 20 metres back by the 750m mark and held the gap until the end of the swim. Possibly the longest transition anyone had ever experienced split the field further making the early bike pace ferocious.

It quickly came together on the bike and the first pack of eight proceeded to put 2 minutes into the second group. This margin ensured that all the athletes in the lead group finished top 8 to hold off the charging Aaron Farlow who finished 9th. After leading much for the run Jimmy Sear finished second behind Joe Umphenour, the American National Champion. Andrew Wright finished in 8th and Gareth Bannon in 11th.

Umphenour extended his podium streak to three after taking his first career ITU title. The American came back from after being down by 30 seconds out of the water. He posted the fastest run split amongst the men to win by a 10-second margin over Aussie James Seear. Kazakhstan’s double Olympian and last year’s winner Daniil Sapunov took the bronze.

A runner-up at this year’s U.S. National Championships, Umphenour followed that up with a silver medal last week in San Francisco and stepped up for gold this past weekend. Like women’s winner Niwata, he has been racing on the ITU circuit consistently since 1997.

OSIM 2008 Hong Kong ITU Triathlon Asian Cup
Elite Men – Final Results

1. Joe Umphenour (USA) 01:57:43
2. James Seear (AUS) 01:57:53
3. Danill Sapunov (KAZ) 01:58:08

Thanks to Andrew Wright for his contribution, he was 8th on the day. Back