Media Release
 
10 November 2002
 
2002 ITU Triathlon World Championships
 
For immediate release: Cancun, Mexico
 
Leanda Cave Leads a British Coup in Cancun
  
Under the scorching sun, amid 30-degree temperatures, a highly competitive field of 65 of the top women triathletes in the world launched from the pier at Playa Langosta in Cancun at 8:00 am this morning to start off the elite women’s race at the 2002 ITU Triathlon World Championships.
 
The opening stages of the swim allowed the strong swimming US women’s team to establish a dominant lead over the two-lap swim. American teammates, Sheila Taormina, Barb Lindquist and Laura Reback worked together on the swim, along with Australians Nicole Hackett and Loretta Harrop. Germany’s Joelle Franzman, Carla Moreno (BRA), Sharon Donnelly and Jill Savege from Canada and Great Britain’s Leanda Cave also worked hard to stay in touch with the leaders into transition one.
 
Out on the bike a lead group established including the three Americans, two Australians and Cave and Donnelly. This group managed a 35 second lead over the closest chase pack of riders including Savege, Moreno, Michellie Jones (AUS), Siri Lindley (USA), Julie Dibens (GBR) and Kathleen Smet (BEL). Behind them a third group formed another 10 seconds behind, lead by Canadian Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Carol Montgomery. At the end of the first of 8 laps the two chase groups had formed into one very large pack of around 20 cyclists.
 
The leaders worked efficiently together, with Taormina and Lindquist leading the charge and by the end of the 1st lap they’d managed to stretch out their lead to 58 seconds. During the opening stages of the bike, two early race favorites, Savege and Moreno crashed — ending their pursuit of a world title in Cancun. At the start of the last lap, the leaders had moved ahead by 1:45, setting up a huge challenge for the second group, including several notable runners.
 
In the early stages of the run, Lindquist gained a slight advantage over the other seven women in the lead group — all of whom started the 10km run with a full 1:40 lead on the chase pack. By the end of the first lap Lindquist had moved to a 12 second lead over Harrop and Cave, followed by Reback. Further back, Michelle Dillon (GBR) and Jones began to run through the field after ending the bike stage in the chase pack. After two laps Lindquist held a 20 seconds lead over Cave, with Hackett a further 10 seconds back but on lap three the race really started to change shape Lindquist moving ahead by 30 seconds and Leanda Cave edging past Hackett. Meanwhile, Dillon had moved into fourth place with her sights set on the podium.
 
Cave ran a well-paced final lap to overtake a rapidly tiring Barb Lindquist. The up and coming Brit passed the American veteran in the final 500metres of the run — earning the first women’s world title for Great Britain and herself. Ten seconds later a seriously fatigued Barb Lindquist crossed the line to take silver while Michelle Dillon produced a blistering run to grab the bronze medal and third spot on the podium. Jones ran a strong race to finish for fourth while Hackett hung on for fifth and Anja Dittmar (GER) finished sixth.
 
Ivan Rana Completes his Rise with a first Gold for Spain
 
After the completion of the women’s event, 79 of the highest ranked men in the world started their race at 10:30 am. While the majority of the field stayed quite close together, at the end of the first of two swim laps, swim specialists Richard Stannard (GBR) and Brent Foster (NZL) managed a small lead over the rest of the field. Vladimir Polikarpenko (UKR), Frederic Belaubre (FRA), Stephane Poulat (FRA), Kris Gemmel (NZ) and Courtney Atkinson (AUS) also remained in touch with the leaders but no clear gap was established.
 
Little changed over the second lap on the swim and small lead group of swim specialists formed onto the 8-lap, 40km cycle. Behind them, around 20 athletes formed the bulk of the chase pack, about 20 seconds back - including 2002 European Champion Ivan Rana (ESP), Miles Stewart (AUS), 2001 World Champion Peter Robertson (AUS), Greg Bennett (AUS), Matt Reed (NZL), Filip Ospaly (FRA), Carl Blasco (FRA) and Hiroyuki Nishiuchi (JAP).
 
After two laps of the cycle the leaders had edged ahead to a 40 second lead, however on the third lap Atkinson dropped back to the second pack, which had reduced the gap to 20 seconds. The third pack of 10 riders including Commonwealth and Olympic Gold medallist Simon Whitfield was 1:30 behind the leaders.
 
The first two packs merged on the fourth lap, making a group of almost 30 athletes. Meanwhile, the second pack lost more time on the sixth lap to fall to 2:10 behind - putting these athletes out of contention. On the seventh lap, Reed, Sylvain Dodet (FRA) Conrad Stoltz (RSA) and Marc Jenkins (GBR) made a breakaway and established a 20 second lead over the big group heading into the bike to run transition.
 
The leaders out onto the run were Dodet, Jenkins, Reed, and Stoltz, and at the end of the first lap Jenkins lead Reed, with a charging Peter Robertson already moving into third place.
 
Other fast starters from the second group were Rana, 1999 World Champion Dimitry Gaag (KAZ) and Chris Hill (AUS), others remaining in contention included Bennett.
 
After two laps, the runners were in control of the race with Robertson holding a 10 second lead over Rana. Further back, Bennett was now running in third position. Rana slowly closed the gap to 10 metres after the third lap, while Andrew Johns (GBR) took over third position from Bennett. On the final lap Rana and Roberston surged and counter surged, but it was Rana who produced the fastest run split to finish victorious for Spain’s first Men’s Gold Medal in a time of 1:50:41. Robertson held on for the Silver, while Johns crossed the line in third to grab the bronze — grabbing Great Britain’s third medal of the day. Polikarpenko (UKR) finished fifth and Maik Petzold (GER) was sixth.
 
Complete results and post-event details are available on the ITU website at: www.triathlon.org.
 
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