Press Release - 2004 ITU Mazatlan World Cup

ITU World
Cup Post Race Press Release

Carla Moreno   (BRA) and Simon Whitfield (CAN) win the ITU Mazatlan World Cup.

The top elite triathletes   in the world met for the second round of the International Triathlon Union World   Cup series event in Mazatlan, Mexico. This first time event proved to be challenging   as the swim had the highest surf ever seen on the World Cup circuit. The other   conditions were ideal as the water and air temperatures were 23 degrees Celsius

The first lap of   the two lap 1500 metre swim saw Melanie Mitchell of Australia, Susan Williams   of the United States of America and the 2000 Olympic Medallist in Water Polo,   Julie Swail of USA, leading. These athletes kept their lead coming out of the   swim but were soon joined by Liz Blatchford (ITU), Anja Dittmer (GER) and Machiko   Nakanishi (JPN).

Onto the bike Blatchford,   Olga Generalova (RUS), Dittmer and Mitchell took an early lead . They were soon   caught by the chase pack and a large group of thirty athletes formed at the   front with Dittmer and Blatchford leading the pack past the 20,000 spectators.

The hard working   chase pack was over two minutes back but managed to make up time on the lead   group with Carolyn Murray (CAN) keeping them organized. The third bike pack   was a further 20 seconds behind and was composed of five athletes with Nancy   Alvarez (ARG) leading.

The final laps   of the bike saw little change in the structure of the packs – the lead   group remained about 1:40 ahead of the chase pack – Sybille Matter (SUI),   Wang Hongni (CHN), Ainhoa Murua (ESP), Samantha McGlone (CAN), Nicola Spirig   (SUI), Magda Stovickova (SVK), Lenka Radova (CZE) could all be found pulling   the lead pack as could Blatchford and Maxine Seear (AUS) who seemed to have   recovered from a chest cold that forced her to drop out of last weekend’s   Honolulu International event.

Leading out of   Transition were China’s Xing Lin and Wang Hongni. They were followed closely   by Blatchford, Tania Haiboek and Eva Bramboeck both of Austria, Murua, Nicola   Spirig and McGlone.

Onto the run, a   flat four laps four laps down the Avenue Sabalo Cervitos; Carla Moreno (BRA)   took the lead, Liz Blatchford was close on her heels two meters back and another   ten seconds back were Maxine Seear, Anna Dittmer and Samantha McGlone.

Halfway through   the run, Carla Morena had a twenty second lead over Maxine Seear, Anja Dittmer   and Samantha McGlone. Apparently tired from her silver medal performance from   last week in Honolulu, Liz Blatchford slipped back another 15 seconds from this   group.

The Elite Women   finished the ITU Mazatlan World Cup with Carla Moreno (BRA) winning the gold   medal, Anja Dittmer (GER) winning the silver and the young Australian Olympian   Maxine Seear (AUS) winning the bronze medal.

The Elite Men’s   race also took place under sunny skies but the men faced similar high surf conditions   to the women.

Exiting the swim   first was Paulo Miyashiro of Japan. He had a 20 second lead heading out on to   the bike.

An early lead onto   the bike was taken by Jan Frodeno (GER), Dirk Bockel (GER), Miyashiro, and Csaba   Kuttor (HUN). Mexican Francisco Serrano of Mexico was ten seconds back –   rifing alone.

Following the second   lap of the bike the structure of the bike had started to take shape - 8 athletes   comprised the lead group with a 12 second lead over the chase pack. In the front   group were Bruno Pais (POR), Frodeno (GER), Arturo Garza (MEX), Jose Luis Zepeda   (MEX), Axel Zeebroek (BEL), and Kuttor. The chase pack,12 seconds back contained   a number of fine athletes including Dmitriy Gaag (KAZ), Simon Whitfield (CAN),   Brent McMahon (CAN), Paul Tichelaar (CAN) Mark Fretta (USA), Brian Fleischmann   (USA).

After lap four   and halfway through the 40 km bike, Javier Rosas and Carlos Probert both of   Mexico were working together at the front of the lead pack. Not far behind two   Canadians - Whitfield and McMahon- were making an organized effort to bridge   the two packs together.

Nearing the end   of the bike Garza and Krommidas continued to lengthen their lead and the big   chase pack caught Kuttor and Pais.

Leaving transition   Arturo Garza and Vasilis Krommidas had a lead of 1 minute and 15 seconds. They   were followed by Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS), Pais, Hunter Kemper (USA), and Canadians   McMahon and Whitfield.

The strong runners   proved too much for Garza and Krommidas - Dmitriy Gaag, Leandro Macedo (BRA),   Kahlefeldt, Kemper, Rosas and Whitfield were all making up time.

With only 2.5 km   left in the run - Gaag, Whitfield, Dehmer and Kemper overtook the early leaders.  

In a very exciting   finish, Simon Whitfield (CAN), 2000 Sydney Olympic Champion, won the gold medal,   while Former World Champion Dmitriy Gaag (KAZ) won silver and Hunter Kemper   (USA) won bronze.

The World Cup Series   now takes a break for the ITU Triathlon World Championships on May 9th, 2004   in Madeira, Portugal before moving on to Tongyeong, Korea on June 12th. Please   visit www.triathlon.org for complete results from Mazatlan, Mexico.