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Jorgensen and Mola dominate opening round of ITU World Triathlon Series

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ITU World Champion, Gwen Jorgensen, USA, and Mario Mola of Spain took the gold medals at the opening round of the ITU World Triathlon Series in Abu Dhabi. Jonathan Brownlee was Britain’s top finisher in fifth over the sprint distance event.

The 2015 Series opened with the women’s race. Lucy Hall was typically strong on the swim and bike, but where Commonwealth Champion, Jodie Stimpson, who would usually come through on the 5km run, struggled as a result of a niggling Achilles.

Jorgensen started the run exactly 60seconds behind the leader, Flora Duffy of Bermuda. However, the world champion closed that gap and went on to win by nearly a minute. Duffy, who attended school in Devon as a teenager, was rewarded with bronze behind USA’s Katie Zaferers. Stimpson was 17th and Hall 35th.

Jorgensen said that she was ‘shocked’ how well she ran, commenting: “I’ve had some good run sessions but I didn’t know I was running that well.”

In the men’s race there was no clear break in the swim, which allowed all of the fast runners to get into a large pack of cyclists and position themselves well for the run.

Mola finished a clear gold medal winner with Vincent Luis (FRA) and Richard Murray (RSA) claiming silver and gold. Jonathan Brownlee was disappointed with fifth, but finished one place ahead of ITU World Champion, Javier Gomez.

He said: “I wanted better than that. I messed up everything I possibly could, that’s what the first race is about. I thought my running was going well, but obviously not so well off the bike. I got into it later on but it was too late then.”

With the next race coming up in Auckland on 28-29 March, he added: “I just need to iron out the mistakes and sharpen up a little.”

In contrast, Mola said: “It was better than I could have expected. I put in 100% [on the run] and I’m pleased with the result.”

Summarising, British Triathlon Performance Director, Brendan Purcell said: “Mola raced really smart today whereas Jonny made some mistakes. He put in a lot of work in at the front of the bike pack and wasn’t where he needed to be at the start of the run.”

He added: “That’s the first race out of the way. Some of our atheltes got points on the board today, which will help them get starts later in the season. The next few races are over the full Olympic distance so we’ll go straight to New Zealand now to train and prepare for those.”

Results:

Women

1. Gwen Jorgensen, USA, 58:59
2. Katie Zaferes, USA, 59:15
3. Flora Duffy, BER, 59:23
17. Jodie Stimpson, GBR, 1:00:11
35. Lucy Hall, GBR, 1:00:56
42. Heather Sellars, GBR, 1:01:18 – WTS Debut
50. Emma Pallant, GBR, 1:02:05

Men

1. Mario Mola, ESP, 52:32
2. Vincent Luis, FRA, 52:45
3. Richard Murray, RSA, 52:50
5. Jonathan Brownlee, GBR, 53:03
20. Adam Bowden, GBR, 53:49
27. Gordon Benson, GBR, 54:12
31. Mark Buckingham, GBR, 54:19

 

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