If you can’t get enough triathlon or need something extra during the long winter evenings then look no further.
With the conclusion of the 2008 BG Triathlon World Cup series, you can now re-live all the action from this season online on triathlon.org or on ITU’s YouTube channel.
You can also view photo galleries and results from all the 2008 World Cup events right here.
The Ironman 70.3 World Championships this Saturday brings together a mix of long and standard distance competitors in one of the most competitive elite races of the year.
Athletes will race over a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile cycle and 13.1 mile half marathon, in the final major triathlon in the international calendar, in Clearwater Florida.
More than 1,800 competitors have earned the right to compete in the Ironman World Championship 70.3 by qualifying at one of the 31 Ironman 70.3 events held around the world.
On the elite side the British women will go in with high hopes. Julie Dibens comes off her win at the XTERRA Triathlon World Championships looking for further success whilst Leanda Cave will want to add to her two ITU world titles with an Ironman medal. Scottish duathlon specialist Catriona Morrison enters Florida with high aspirations having won the ITU Duathlon Long Distance Championships earlier in the year.
The UK men should also be in contention with Stephen Bayliss looking to add to two his two Ironman. Stirling’s Fraser Cartmell won the UK leg of the Ironman 70.3, whilst sibling duo, Toby and Joel Jameson, will look to race well and gain valuable.
Results will be updated here when available.
Great Britain’s Chrissie Wellington and Australia’s Craig Alexander celebrated first-place titles at the 30th anniversary of the Ford Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Alexander, with an Ironman 70.3 World Championship title in addition to a second-place finish last year in Kona, crossed the line with a time of 8:17:45.
The event saw 1,731 athletes officially start the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Defending her current World Championship title, Wellington finished more than ten minutes ahead of her fellow competitors at 9:06:23. Despite mechanical trouble, Wellington took the women’s lead approximately 30 miles into the bike and eclipsed the current women’s run course record with a blistering marathon time of 2:57:44.
ITU Duathlon World Champion, Paul Amey, was top male Brit in 17th with Stephen Bayliss 19th. Bayliss’ fiancée, Bella Comerford, finished seventh in the women’s race to round off an exceptional year which has included three Ironman wins.
Alexander dominated an impressive men’s field consisting of Ironman World Champions such as Chris McCormack, Normann Stadler, Faris Al-Sultan and other top contenders including Chris Lieto, Eneko Llanos, Torbjorn Sindballe, Cameron Brown and Rutger Beke. Alexander, among the top ten throughout the bike portion, further showcased his running prowess taking the lead at the turnaround.
You can get the full race results here.
NBC will air the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship on December 13, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST. Please check your local listings for specific details.
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2008 Rimini ITU Duathlon World Championships, Italy. 10km run, 40km bike, 5k run
Paul Amey won his third ITU Duathlon World Championship on a day marred by controversy in Rimini, Italy. Belgian Rob Woestenborghs was first across the line but after his own teammate lodged a protest, Woestenborghs was later disqualified by race officials thereby giving the world championship title to Amey.
The drama began early in the 40-kilometer bike segment as all six men were in the lead pack. According to Dereere, his Belgian teammate Woestenborghs was cycling dangerously. Eventually Amey, Aernouts and Woestenborghs broke away and went on to post the three fastest bike splits of the day by almost two full minutes. That lead was enough for all three to secure the podium with Woestenborghs crossing the line first, Amey second and Aernouts in third.
However, after the race, Dereere filed a protest with race officials against Woestenborghs for his aggressive riding. Officials said it was a tough call but ultimately disqualified both men for what was deemed “unsportsmanlike and dangerous behaviour on the first lap of the bike segment which risked the safety of the competitors around them”.
In the women’s event Olympic silver medallist Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal successfully defended her ITU Duathlon World Championship. It was a commanding victory for Fernandes who finished ahead of 2-time Long Distance Duathlon World Champion Catriona Morrison of Great Britain and double Olympian Ana Burgos of Spain.
Morrison, who only started her season last month due to knee surgery in April, has come back strong and adds the silver medal to her long distance world championship in August.
Alongside the impressive elite success in Rimini, Great Britain’s Age Group competitors also accumulated a number of medals.
You can view the full results for the elite and age group catagories here. Results and report courtesy of ITU official website.
Britain’s Bella Comerford and Stephen Bayliss, continued their excellent year of competition with victories at Ironman UK in Sherborne, Dorset on Sunday.
Bayliss exited the swim just behind Scotland’s Fraser Cartmell, and despite coming under pressure on the bike was able to pull away on the run to register a comfortable victory over last year’s champion, Scott Neyedli. Cartmell retired towards the end of the run whilst Austria’s Andrea di Bernardo took third.
After a steady swim last year’s women’s champion, Comerford, chased down the leaders on the cycle before opening up a large margin and stormed to victory by 35 minutes ahead of Germany’s Heiki Funk.
Well done to all those who participated and achieved the status of ‘Ironman’, as well as a huge thank you to the army of volunteers that make Ironman UK such a success.
Full race results can be found here.
Beijing Olympian Will Clarke returned to form at Sunday’s Corus Elite Series in Strathclyde Park, the venue for the triathlon at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Clarke raced through the super sprint format competition, cruising through his heat before pipping fellow Team GB member, Alistair Brownlee, for the gold in the final. Having exited the 300m open water swim off the pace, Clarke was forced to chase down Brownlee during the 7km cycle, finally catching him with just one of three 2.5km laps to go. However a swift final transition saw Clarke steal an early lead on the 2km run and he was able to hold off the charging Brownlee for victory. Dann Brook made it an all British podium with a third place finish.
In the women’s race New Zealand’s Samantha Warriner buried her Olympic demons, where she finished 16th, with an excellent performance. She held off Germany’s Christine Pilz and Britain’s Jodie Swallow to take first place.
Glasgow’s Kerry Lang overcame a leg injury from her heat to place fifth. When changing from bike to run in her first race she slipped and cut her leg on the gears of her bike, however thankfully much of the damage was superficial.
Scotland’s World Junior Champion, Kirsty McWilliam, finished tenth in the final. Having been held up in the swim she was unable to bridge back up to the leaders but ran strongly to pull herself through the field.
The Corus Elite Series in Strathclyde Park also concluded the season long British Triathlon Grand Prix Series. Having raced across six venues Britain’s Richard Stannard finished first with Stuart Hayes second and Dann Brook moving up to third after his efforts. There was a tie in the women’s competition as Andrea Whitcombe and Jodie Swallow finished on 297 points with Samantha Herridge from Guernsey and Vicky Holland tied for third on 288 points. Results courtesy of British Triathlon.
British Triathlon have announced that tomorrows Corus Elite Series race in Strathclyde Park, Glasgow, will see the conclusion of the the 2008 British Triathlon Grand Prix Series.
Having taken place in Reading, Blenheim, Windsor, Tredegar and London, the series adopts the adrenaline-fuelled super sprint format and moves on to the triathlon venue in North Lanarkshire which will be used for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The super sprint eliminator format proved a massive success when it made its debut at Hyde Park, London in 2007. Only in this format of racing do athletes have to compete in a heat’s and final format event, proving for some fast and exciting racing. Also at stake for athletes that took part int he previous two Corus Elite Series events, will be the overall title of series winner.
The 300m lap swim in the Loch begins with a pontoon start. This will be followed by a testing 7km bike stage which takes in the scenic surroundings of the park. Athletes will then transition into a 2.2km run to race to the finish. The event will be held in conjunction with North Lanarkshire Council, triathlonscotland and EventScotland.
The women’s race will pitch Britain’s best against an Olympic trio of New Zealand’s Samantha Warriner, Ireland’s Emma Davis and Christine Pilz from Germany. Young Junior World Champion, Kirsty McWilliam, will fly the flag for Scotland alongside Kerry Lang whilst Jodie Swallow and Andrea Whitcombe have a personal battle to decide the winner of the Grand Prix Series. They are currently tied on 297pts.
Back from Bejing, Team GB’s Alistair Brownlee and Will Clarke will be sure to figure at the head of the race, but there is serious competition in the form of Barrett Brandon from the USA and Ben Visser from New Zealand, as well as a whole host of European elites. With Stuart Hayes racing in the USA, Richard Stannard has effectively won the Grand Prix Series with this weekend’s race in hand.
Chrissie Wellington continued her winning ways at the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championship in the Netherlands. The event, held yesterday in Almere consisted of a 4km swim, 120 km bike and a 30km run.
The British long distance star took gold for her first elite ITU world championship title. Wellington also became the third straight British woman to win the event after Leanda Cave won in 2007 and Bella Comerford in 2006. Denmark’s Charlotte Kolters took the silver while Dutch favourite Yvonne van Vlerken delighted the home crowds with the bronze.
This result again reaffirms Wellington’s position as the worlds leading female long distance triathlete and bodes well for the defence of her Hawaii World Championship crown.
In the men’s field Julien Loy of France successfully defended his title, becoming just the third man to win back-to-back ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships. Loy anchored a gold-silver finish for France as Francois Chabaud was runner-up. The French men nearly duplicated last year’s sweep of the podium but Martin Jensen of Denmark beat Sebastien Berlier to the line for the bronze.
Great Britain’s Paul Ambrose finished a commendable ninth on his ITU debut.
If Chrissie continues in her winning ways for the remainder of the year she must surely be nominated for BBC’s Sports Personality of the year for 2008. She has achieved so much in such a short period of time and is a true champion of long distance triathlon throughout the world.
Less then 24 hours after the completion of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games triathlon, the International Triathlon Union today announced an innovative new platform for the sport by establishing a pioneering new series that will take triathlon to new heights.
This is a great step forward for triathlon and it is exciting for triathlon to be moving in this direction. The benefit of live TV is it creates a proper season. People will know when to watch and when to tune into triathlon.
The new format will consist of six World Championship events plus a Grand Final every year, extending the current single World Championships event into a series. A major feature is the world’s best athletes will now consistently race head-to-head. World class venues in internationally renowned cities will be selected to host each World Championship event with guaranteed live international high-definition television offered.
For the first three years, the events programme will be scheduled on a monthly basis from March to September. In an Olympic year, the Grand Final will move to October or November. This provides the athletes, coaches, National Federations, sponsors and television broadcasters with a well planned stable schedule of high quality events.
Each World Championship event leading up to the Grand Final will seek to integrate a mass participation and youth element alongside the elite races. The ITU Age-Group World Championships will be staged at the annual Grand Final event along with Junior and Under23 competitions.
ITU has formed a partnership with a major international sports business to collaborate on a fresh and exciting new programme of events, the ‘ITU Triathlon World Championship Series’.
I think this new series is a fantastic way to enable athletes to showcase triathlon to the world. Even better is the incorporation of the various age-group championships into the ‘Grand Final’. In how many other sports can ‘amateurs’ rub shoulders on the start line with ‘the elite’?
Well done the ITU!!!
Click here to watch the ITU promo video.
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