Oceania Triathlon

Barb Lindquist of the USA led through the entire swim course   and exited with a 12 second lead over her teammate, Sheila Taormina as a large   chase group led by Michellie Jones of Australia started the 7 lap 40km bike   with a 30 second deficit.

Lindquist waited for Taormina during the early stage of the   bike in order to form the duo at the front which has been a formidable force   at many World Cup events this season.

With Michellie Jones at the helm of the chase pack, Lindquist   and Taormina were not able to get away, as Jones pulled a group of 8 up to close   the gap to the leaders. It was at this point that pre-race favourites Anja Dittmer   of Germany and Jill Savege of Canada were in a bike accident which put Dittmer   out of the race and seriously handicapped Savege’s chances.

With Jones in the chase pack were her Aussie teammates Emma   Snowsill and Liz Blatchford, along with American teammates Laura Reback and   Becky Gibbs-Lavelle and Joelle Franzmann of Germany.

The chase pack took 25 seconds off the leaders on the first   lap when Sheila Taormina dropped back, leaving Lindquist alone at the front.  

The chase group caught Lindquist on the 3rd lap to form a group   of 8 at the front.

The chase group now became a large group of 22 which was just   over 1 minute back. It included Canada’s Carol Montgomery, Brazil’s Mariana   Ohata, Tracy Looze of the Netherlands, Beatrice Lanza of Italy, Susan Williams   of the USA , Erika Molnar of Hungary, and Akiko Sekine of Japan.

The leaders increased the gap on the chase pack to over 2 minutes   as they entered the last lap of the bike, and with so many great runners amongst   the leaders, it was anyone’s guess as to the final outcome.

The leaders came into the bike to run transition together with   a 1:45 lead on the chase pack. The Americans (Reback, Lindquist and Taormina)   were first through T2 onto the 4 lap 10km run course, followed by Franzmann,   Jones and Gibbs-Lavelle.

Emma Snowsill ran through the field after a slow transition   to take over the lead at the front as Reback and Taormina tried to stay with   her and Lindquist dropped back to 4th

But there was no stopping Snowsill has she increased her lead   by as much as 25 seconds a lap. By the halfway point the battle for the other   2 steps on the podium was taking place behind Snowsill with Lindquist, Jones   and Reback running shoulder to shoulder.

  Snowsill romped home to claim the 2003 World title by an incredible margin of   1:23, as Laura Reback outsprinted Michellie Jones to take 2nd. A record number   of countries (8) were represented in the top 10 - a very good sign as the sport   heads into an Olympic year