ITU World Triathlon Series

Tim Don is Crowned World Triathlon Champion

03 September 2006

The Corus British Triathlon team continued its remarkable week of success with Tim Don winning the World Triathlon Championships this afternoon in Lausanne. Don made a supreme effort to bridge a gap on the bike to join a group of ten athletes that also included Stuart Hayes. This group of ten exited the second transition some 1 minute and fifteen seconds over a large chase group of over 40 athletes.

Upon exiting transition, the race was always between Don and Carter (New Zealand) with Don making the decisive break at the beginning of the 3rd lap to take victory from Carter by 11 seconds. Frenchman Belaubre finished in a highly respectable third place after a solid run. Andrew Johns had a strong run to finish in 9th place having been in the chase group of the bike and always had too large a deficit to overcome. Stuart Hayes after a promising swim and bike faded on the run to finish in 11th place.

This result adds to the success of Harry Wiltshire in the World Student Championships, Richard Stannard in the World Aquathlon Championships, Alistair Brownlee in the World Junior Championships as well as multiple successes in the age-group races.

In the women’s race the much anticipated showdown between Emma Snowsill (Aus) and Vanessa Fernandes (Por) went the way of the Australian after a blistering run. Felicity Abram added a bronze medal to the Australian medal haul by finishing in third place. After a strong swim from the British athletes with both Andrea Whitcombe and Liz Blatchford making the lead bike group neither were able to make a significant impact on the run with Whitcombe finishing in 6th place some 1 minute 44 seconds adrift with Blatchford in 13th.