Press Release - 2003 ITU Queenstown World Triathlon Championships - Elite Women
By ITU Admin on 07/12/03 at 12:00 am
ITU Media:
7 December 2003
Emma Snowsill is the 2003 Triathlon World Champion
Queenstown, New Zealand: For immediate Release: It was a stunningly beautiful
day in Queenstown as the elite women’s field executed a picture-perfect dive from
the start platform for the 1 lap, 1500 metre swim. With water temperature hovering
around 18oC, wetsuits were the order of the day.
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
Find more details about this event - 2003 Queenstown ITU Triathlon World Championships
