ITU World Triathlon Series

Press Release - 2003 ITU Tongyeong World Cup - Elite Women

07 June 2003

ITU Media
Release: 7 June 2003

Laura Reback Wins the Tongyeong ITU World Cup, Making it 2 in a Row!

Tongyeong, Korea, 7 June 2003: For immediate Release: According to ITU President Les McDonald, the Korean Organising Committee for the Tongyeong ITU World Cup have done an wonderful job preparing the stage for this event – repaved roads, immaculate branding – perhaps one of the nicest looking venues on the World Cup circuit. This area of Korea is fast becoming a tourist Mecca, with pine tree covered islands in the distance – a virtual playground for those who love the outdoors. Temperature in Tongyeong this morning hovered around 30oC, with the sun trying to break through the marine mist that had settled over the sea during the night. Water temperature an hour before race start was just over 20oC, so the swim was without wetsuits.

After the 1st lap of the 2 laps-1500m swim course, a group of 4 women created a slight lead of about 14 seconds over the rest of the field, led by Jill Savege of Canada, Laura Reback of the USA, Sharon Donnelly of Canada and Maxine Seear of Australia. The leaders dropped Sharon Donnelly on the second lap and quickly swept through transition onto the 8-lap, 40km bike course. Donnelly exited alone about 25 seconds behind the leaders. A further 30 seconds back after the swim, a group of about 14 was led by Nina Anisimova of Russia, Lenka Radova of the Czech Republic, Olga Generalova of Russia, Australian teammates Emma Snowsill and Liz Blatchford, Canada’s Tara Ross and Silvia Gemignani of Italy.

After the first lap on the bike, the lead group of 3 appeared to be working very well together and were pulling away from the chase pack. Meanwhile, former World Championships Emma Carney of Australia was about 1:30 down after the swim, but was organising a group to try and close the gap on the leaders.

The group of 3 at the front maintained their lead until the fourth lap when the chase group led by Lenka Radova, Eva Bramboeck of Austria and Amanda Pagon of the USA made a dramatic charge in an effort to catch the leaders. They came to within 10 seconds of the lead group who appeared to be fading somewhat. The second chase pack, a further 45 seconds back included Samantha McClone and Gillian Moody of Canada and Silvia Gemignani.

The leaders were caught on lap 5, and Lenka Radova took over at the front as the former leaders settled into the group to give their legs a rest. Shizuka Kutsuna, who was with the chase group when they caught the leaders dropped out the back and was swallowed up by the new chase group led by Canadian teammates Natasha Filliol and Gillian Moody, as well as Japanese running specialist Akiko Sekine.

The separation between the 15 member pack at the front and the chase pack of 8 remained the same through the final 3 laps on the bike until the second transition. Laura Reback was first onto the 4 lap, 10km bike course with a few seconds lead over Liz Blatchford, Jill Savege, Lenka Radova, Sharon Donnelly and Tara Ross.

During the first 3 laps of the run Laura Reback retained her lead at the front, exchanging several times with Lenka Radova, Emma Snowsill, and Liz Blatchford. Jill Savege remained in contention some 10 seconds behind. Akiko Sekine, Nina Anisimova, Sharon Donnelly, Natasha Filliol, Machiko Nakanishi and Samantha Warriner of New Zealand are all vying for Top 10 finishes at this point. As the leaders entered the final lap, Jill Savege and Lenka Radova dropped back about 10 seconds with Reback, Snowsill and Blatchford running shoulder to shoulder at the front.

In the dying moments of the event, it was Laura Reback and Liz Blatchfor running in a dead heat to the finishline with Emma Snowsill a few metres back. In the finish straight, the more experience Reback was determined to make it 2 World Cup wins in a row as she charged for the line, just moments ahead of Blatchford who posted her best results in World Cup racing. Emma Snowsill was 3rd, Lenka Radova was 4th and Jill Savege rounded out the top 5.

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