With just over a month to go until the start of the 2015 World Triathlon Series in Abu Dhabi, most of the sport’s biggest Olympic distance stars are confirmed for the start pontoon, including top Brits the Brownlee brothers and Jodie Stimpson.
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This is the first time the WTS tour stops in Abu Dhabi, and the sprint distance season opener has attracted both 2014 winners Javier Gomez (ESP) and Gwen Jorgensen (USA), and a large British contingent too: Helen Jenkins, Lucy Hall, Vicky Holland, Aaron Harris, Adam Bowden and David McNamee are all on the start list.
There is massive strength in depth too: Mario Mola (ESP), Richard Murray (RSA), Aaron Royle (AUS), Anne Haug (GER), Andrea Hewitt (NZL), Emma Moffatt (AUS) and Nicola Spirig (SUI) are some of the other big names confirmed.
There is however no Non Stanford, Britain’s 2013 WTS champ who’s still out with an injured foot, nor Sarah Groff (USA), who won last year’s WTS Stockholm. Full start lists are available on the ITU website.
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Abu Dhabi is the only new stop on the 2015 WTS calendar, while Australia’s Gold Coast returns for the first time since 2009. The dates for London have also been confirmed for 30-31 May:
6-7 March – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
28-29 March – Auckland, New Zealand
11-12 April – Gold Coast, Australia
25-26 April – Cape Town, South Africa
16-17 May – Yokohama, Japan
30-31 May – London, Great Britain
18-19 July – Hamburg, Germany
22-23 August – Stockholm, Sweden
5-6 September – Edmonton, Canada
15-20 September – Chicago, USA
We’ll be covering all the action via a liveblog on the 220 website and on Twitter – join us on 7 March from 3pm local time (11am UK time).
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Who do you think will win in Abu Dhabi? Let us know in the comments below!
Are you part of a triathlon club planning to send its top athletes to The Bastion this July? This could be worth your while – there’s £250 cash and an impressive trophy on offer to the club with the first three members past the finishing line.
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Taking place at Hever Castle on 12 July and known as one of the toughest long distance triathlons in the UK, the only criterion for entry into this year’s inter club champs is that each club must have a minimum of three entries. The individual times of the fastest three members will then be added together and averaged.
This year’s event has already drawn long distance pro Darren Jenkins, who is also planning to take on all five of this year’s Gauntlet races: Lough Cutra Castle (24 May), Cholmondeley Castle (28 June), Castle Howard (26 July), Château de Chantilly (30 August) and Hever Castle (27 September).
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The Bastion was launched last year and won by Fraser Cartmell and Alice Hector, the race takes in two unique swim loops through the River Eden, cycle down country lanes around Ashdown Forest and the High Weald of Kent, and an off-road run passing two castles, streams and over quaint meadow bridges.
To enter this year’s Bastion head to www.castletriathlonseries.co.uk.
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Will you be entering this year’s inter club champs? Let us know in the comments!
Ironman has named its overall 2014 All World Athlete Champions for each age-group category, with the US being top-ranked nation with 12 champs, followed by Australia and Canada with four apiece.
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The 28 AWA champions come from nine different countries: Germany and Brazil have two AWA champions each, while Britain has just one, along with New Zealand, the Netherlands and Japan.
Caroline Livesey from North Yorkshire is the British athlete who earned top overall spot in the 35-39 category, after coming first in her division at Ironman Texas and Ironman Austria, and third in Kona.
Livesey also won silver at the British Middle Distance Championships in Aberfeldy last summer, and started strongly at Challenge Weymouth before being forced to drop out on the run:
Dropped out at 30k on run @challengetriuk gutted but it was the right decision. Kona too important. Thanks for all support @Huubdesign
— Caroline Livesey (@tri_c_livesey) September 14, 2014
In more good news for British long-distance athletes, the UK came fifth in the Ironman AWA country standings: over 20,000 athletes worldwide accrued enough points last year to earn the designation All World Athlete, with the US again leading the rankings (7,129 athletes), followed by Australia (1,971), Canada (1,196), Germany (1,044) and the UK (946).
For full results and more info on the Ironman Age Group Ranking Program head to www.ironman.com/ranking.
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Were you one of Ironman’s 2014 All World Athletes? Let us know in the comments!
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Did you race in the London Triathlon last August? How did you get on? We’re collecting stories to share and particularly want to hear any really funny, inspiring or gritty memories!
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So whether it was your first triathlon and you scraped through by the skin of your teeth, your fiftieth and a personal best, you out-numptied yourself yet again or raced in memory of a loved one, we want to hear them all.
Please share them in the comments below, tweet us, share on our Facebook page or email us at [email protected].
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We can’t wait to hear them all! Check out our galleries one and two to jog your memory…
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How do you attract more newcomers into triathlon, when many people like the idea but are put off by the thought of long-course racing and equipment costs?
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Sport England is hoping to do just that with its new GO TRI campaign, which aims to make multisport more accessible with shorter distances, low-cost race entry and give people the training and kit advice they need to get started.
The project has been running since last year on a low-key basis, offering training sessions via gyms and health clubs along with a few pilot events, but is now ramping up for 2015 with the aim of attracting around 15,000 new participants to the sport by April 2016.
It plans to do this with scores of small-scale events organised around the country by triathlon clubs, gyms and leisure centres at over 100 venues, with each event costing under £15 to enter.
The big initial push will be done via a weekend of multisport dubbed ‘GO TRI 1000’, taking place on the weekend of 25/26 April at around 36 venues around the country, with the aim of involving at least 1,000 new triathletes – though a spokesperson for Triathlon England tells us the actual number could be well in excess of that.
The intention is to provide dozens of small, informal events nationwide, along a similar model to the hugely successful Parkrun series. Triathlon England will be providing tri clubs, gyms and the like with an ‘event in a box’ containing all the necessary items to run a low-key triathlon, including risk assessment forms, flags, instructions and more. There’s no timing equipment though.
The campaign’s backers are also planning to involve Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign which is making such a big impact at the moment, and may even run dedicated #thisgirlcan training sessions and race waves later this year.
With one eye on London 2012’s sporting legacy, Sport England hope that GO TRI will become one of its big success stories and demonstrate that with the right positioning, people can be persuaded to get involved – and hopefully come back for more…
For more information and to find a GO TRI 1000 event near you, head to www.gotri.org.
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Do you think GO TRI can get people to tackle their first tri? Let us know in the comments!
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Inspired by Sweden’s spectacular OtillO race, the team behind the Celtman have put together a new swim/run event for this September which sends participants across a bunch of beautiful Scottish lochs.
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The race is being held in the spectacular South Loch Ness area, with two of the swim sections in Loch Ness itself (no word yet on whether Nessie will be on the water safety team). It started on 26 September at the historic Castle Urquhart and finishes in the shadow of the atmospheric Fort Augustus Abbey.
The race will involve 13 swims in total covering 8km across some very deep and dark water, and 12 runs totalling 53km. The race will be run under OtillO SwimRun rules. Entries for pairs of athletes will open this month on www.swimrunscotland.com.
(Images: Colin Henderson)
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Will you be entering Swimrun Scotland? Let us know in the comments below!
The black sand beaches of the Albay Riviera – honest that is what it is called – welcomed about 300 racers and over 1,000 spectators last weekend with some neat shore chop. Not quite Maui, but it definitely had some local competitors concerned.
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South Africa’s Bradley Weiss was coming off a win at Buffelspoort in South Africa, Ben Allen spent the winter in Australia and looked great and Mauricio Mendez is 19 and always ready. For the women, World Champion Flora Duffy had also started her training in South Africa and Jacqui Slack was with Ben down under.
The question mark was Renata Bucher, last year’s winner in the Philippines, who had suffered a bad ankle sprain and had considered not racing at all. Dimity-Lee Duke was looking quite slim and had been working on her biking skills, Mieko Carey lives in the tropics and was ready to race. Daz Parker was here after working hard with Johnny Depp (actually trying to kill him in the film ‘Out Of The Woods’).
Men’s race
And so things went in the big race. Ben and Mauricio were first out of the water with Flora right with them. Brad was not far behind and quickly took control out on the bike turning in the fastest time of the day a bit over 2mins faster than Allen.
Mendez is fast improving and came into T2 about 30secs behind Ben. His running is no longer a surprise after coming from 13th out of T2 to fifth at the finish on Maui and he dispatched the Aussie and set off after the Springbok. Mo put in a 40 minute 9K and gained almost two minutes, but was still a minute behind Weiss at the finish.
The run is reminiscent of Maui in that the first half is all uphill and the second half all downhill. The difference being Maui’s sand is on a beach and Albay’s is on the way up Mayon volcano.
Women’s race
Flora was first woman out of the water and kept the lead with the fastest bike and fastest run. Indeed our world champ was 5th overall of the individuals bringing to mind Lesley Paterson’s phenomenal 4th here a few years ago.
Jacqui was in great shape and similar to Flora had the second best swim, second fastest bike and third fastest run for the women and a very solid second step on the podium. Poor Mieko Carey was in third coming off the bike but was hurting on the run and Aussie Dimity-Lee Duke passed her for her first podium in an Xterra. She was simply bubbling with joy.
So the expected happened. A few nice surprises to start the year were Dimity looking very strong and young Aussie pro Brodie Gardner with an impressive fourth place. Aya Stevens was back after an injury kept her out in 2014 and while not super-fast, did finish and finish healthy.
PRO MEN
Pl
Name
Total
Swim
Bike
Run
1
Brad Weiss, RSA
2:28:00
16:53
1:29:25
41:42
2
Mauricio Mendez, MEX
2:28:58
16:21
1:32:36
40:01
3
Ben Allen, AUS
2:33:51
16:19
1:31:54
45:38
4
Brodie Gardner, AUS
2:40:35
18:31
1:37:50
44:14
5
Charlie Epperson, USA
2:51:20
21:04
1:46:28
43:48
6
Joe Miller, PHI
3:10:48
24:06
1:58:21
48:21
7
Michal Bucek, SVK
3:14:42
18:59
1:56:28
59:15
PRO WOMEN
Pl
Name
Total
Swim
Bike
Run
1
Flora Duffy, BER
2:43:40
16:28
1:42:15
44:57
2
Jacqui Slack, GBR
2:56:51
18:25
1:47:39
50:47
3
Dimity-Lee Duke, AUS
3:03:18
20:18
1:54:08
48:52
4
Mieko Carey, JPN
3:06:39
19:51
1:51:43
55:05
5
Renata Bucher, SUI
3:12:53
21:06
1:52:34
59:13
6
Daz Parker, GBR
3:19:16
22:15
2:01:41
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55:20
7
Aya Stevens, SVK
3:20:07
20:23
2:07:07
52:37
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(Images: Xterra)
Three-time Kona champ Craig ‘Crowie’ Alexander (AUS) took his fourth win at Ironman 70.3 Geelong last weekend, holding off young compatriot Sam Applegate despite some hard battling from the latter.
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Perfect conditions produced some super-fast swim times: Estonian Marko Albert led out of the water in 21:25mins followed closely by James Seear (AUS), with the main contenders including Alexander, Bowstead (NZL) and Appleton in the chase group.
Appleton opened up a 30-second lead on the chase pack early on in the 90km bike as Bell suffered a mechanical problem that forced him out of the race. Bowstead and Alexander pushed hard and, by the end of the bike leg, had closed the gap.
Alexander took the lead on to the 21.1km run, but Appleton was quickly onto his shoulder, where he remained until the last few kilometres when Alexander finally broke his young challenger.
“I put a lot of surges in today, on one of the downhills I was running sub-three minute kilometres, and I still couldn’t drop Sam,” Alexander said. “I was disappointed after Kona last year and took some time off; I trained through Christmas and actually feel fitter than I did last year at the same time.”
Women’s race
Before the women’s race Aussie favourites Rebekah Keat and Liz Blatchford had joked it would be a battle of the “unfittest”, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Blatchford, Rebekah Keat and Gina Crawford (NZL) led out of the water and then spent the entire bike leg within close sight of each other.
Keat knew she needed to build a lead on the bike and took off like a scalded cat. “I knew Liz and Gina were fit and I needed to go out hard and try and hold on,” she said afterwards. Blatchford took the opposite approach and held a steady pace, hoping Keat would hit a wall.
“I only had one pace today, so I just had to run my own race. Bek took off out of transition quickly and she got a minute up the road. I held steady and she blew up and started to come back to me, so I dug deep and managed to get the win. It was fun out there today,” Blatchford says. Crowley managed to overtake Crawford late in the run leg to claim third.
Results, elite men:
1. Craig Alexander (Australia) 3:46.26
2. Sam Appleton (Australia) 3:46.43
3. Mark Bowstead (New Zealand) 3:51.14
4. Jeffrey Symonds (Canada) 3:52.21
5. Marko Albert (Estonia) 3:54.48
Results, elite women:
1. Liz Blatchford (Australia) 4:19.34
2. Rebekah Keat (Australia) 4:20.03
3. Sarah Crowley (Australia) 4:20.52
4. Gina Crawford (New Zealand) 4:22.12
5. Amanda Wilson (Australia) 4:24.27
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Were you racing in Geelong last weekend? Let us know in the comments below!
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Hugely respected as one of the toughest competitors on the ITU circuit, South Africa’s Richard Murray gave us one of the highlights of the 2014 World Triathlon Series – a thrilling sprint finish against Spain’s Mario Mola in Hyde Park – but finished a disappointing 52nd in Edmonton and eighth overall in the series.
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Speaking to 220 yesterday, he says that the end of last season was one of the negative moments of his career: falling ill straight after WTS Stockholm (where he came fifth) with just one week to go until the Grand Final, throw in some missing luggage… It’s fair to say Edmonton was a washout for South Africa’s leading ITU racer, after some superb earlier results that included bronze at WTS Yokohama, silver in Hyde Park plus a bronze at the Commonwealth Games.
So what’s he been up to since then? Training, and lots of it, it seems. “After Edmonton I sat down with my coach and asked, ‘What do I need to do between now and Rio to put myself in the position to shoot for a medal every race?’ I looked into it and decided I had to go to Europe earlier than I had planned. I wanted to spend the summer in South Africa like I usually do, but decided to put in the hard miles at the pool. I think more time with the training squad and fewer events in 2015 is what’s going to be the change.”
To that end, Murray left South Africa at the end of November for a two-week training camp in Portugal, and has been in Majorca since the start of January for an intensive two-month training block, along with training partner and rival Mola – where it’s been snowing the past few weeks…
“The weather was a little bit fresh the last few days but yeah it’s definitely going well. The main priority of coming here was to put in a solid swimming block over these few months, and hopefully that will progress to the point where I’m further up in the swim come Abu Dhabi time.”
A whole lot of racing
Of course, there’s even more to play for this season: in addition to earning enough points in this year’s 10-event World Triathlon series, there’s qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics to factor into his race schedule. So how hectic is it looking?
“The big one for me is I will be qualifying for Rio, also the World Triathlon Series in Cape Town I’m looking forward to quite a bit. The Abu Dhabi WTS race in the first or second week of March is a big one, I love new events, the unknown is there which is always an interesting factor. Moving further down the season Hamburg and London are always great ones in Europe that I enjoy quite a bit.”
He tells us that he doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on any one single race – “obviously apart from the Olympics” – but the season opener in Abu Dhabi must be ringed in red on his calendar, being a sprint distance event in hot and humid conditions, right?
“I think it’s going to be an interesting one. The temperature should be mid to high twenties, and it’s being held in the evening as well, so you’re going to have to plan things around that and see how the body is ready at that time of the afternoon. A podium is what I want, I’d love it to come down to a sprint finish like it was in London last year, that’s what the crowd wants. Mario is looking strong here on the camp, it’s definitely going to be an interesting event to watch.”
Both Brownlees and reigning WTS champ Javier Gomez have already confirmed they’ll be there, but who else does he think could prove tricky? “João Pereira showed a very good season in 2014, he’s a very powerful athlete, very good in the sprint, and Sven Riederer is coming through as well, his sprint was very good in Stockholm last year. I think there are a couple of guys in the secondary pools who are going to be in the top three leaving the swim. We’ll see how it goes come Abu Dhabi!”
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So with many of the world’s top triathletes being attracted into racing the Challenge Triple Crown series, thanks to promises in equal measure of top prize purses and outstanding organisation, is he tempted to follow Gomez into the new series?
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“I am not, no. I only looked at it the other week, thought “Oh lots of prize money, very interesting,” but it’s another of those things where you can’t do everything – unless you’re Javi [Javier Gomez]! Then you can race every weekend and do an Ironman 70.3 here, a sprint distance there, then a World Triathlon Series… To be able to do that is not easy, you need to do a lot of things right, you might walk away with injuries and fatigue, not medals and glory.
“There are obviously certain things that Javier does meticulously and in a certain way, he enjoys racing, he’s a racing character and he trains hard to do it. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but he’s a very strong and also more mature athlete than most of us, he’s got a couple of years on myself, the Brownlees and Mario [Mola]. When you’re 30 plus and you’ve got a bit more stamina and endurance in yourself you can actually do something like that, but when you’re young you should stick to what you’re good at and what you really want to do.”
Rio revelations
Looking ahead to Rio then, what’s he looking forward to most about the test event this August? “I’m kind of in two minds about doing it, it sounds funny but there’s no prize money, there’s positives and negatives about going to do it. But I definitely think going there and seeing the course is worth doing, there’s quite a hill on the bike as well, there are a couple of things that you want to plan and look at beforehand to take what you can away from the event. There’s going to be a lot of psyched people looking at it as well to see how people race, so it’s definitely going to be an important one.”
And what is the qualification criteria for the South African team? “I haven’t heard thus far, the African style is literally whoever’s the best will go, and that’s usually how my mindset goes. The criteria and everything can be there but that can put stress on the whole matter, every event is important for me. The African events are important for the African guys involved, the African champs in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt this May, and also WTS Cape Town will be a very important one to do well at.”
Winter training tips
To wrap up, we asked Richard what tips he has for 220 readers trying to stay motivated through a cold British winter – a plight he’s sympathetic to, particularly given the recent snowfall in Majorca!
Snow in ye mountains this morning .. 🙂 #Yolo #Soller #Mallorca pic.twitter.com/CVbL1JtAz9
— Richard Murray (@RD_murray) February 1, 2015
“Probably one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give is to plan your sessions – it’s quite difficult when the weather gets bad, your motivation levels are a bit low, so definitely saying: ‘This is what I’m going to do on that certain day.’ even if it’s just one or two sessions, to actually get out there and do it. Once you’ve got past the first half an hour or 40mins you usually think: ‘Ah that wasn’t so bad.’
Also joining groups – if the weather gets really bad, do it indoors with a couple of mates, you still get the session done. If you have the opportunity and lots of money lying around you can come to somewhere like Majorca, there’s definitely options for doing it, and it’s not horrendously expensive if you book well in advance. If you’re a top age-grouper and you’re able to tap into those type of things then a week or two definitely plays well on the body and the mind.”
(Images: Delly Carr / Janos Schmidt)
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We’ll be covering all the action via a liveblog on the 220 website and on Twitter – join us on 7 March from 3pm local time (11am UK time)
The Hy-Vee Triathlon is no more – after eight years of pulling in big-name athletes to the city of Des Moines, USA, the title sponsor has decided to call it a day. Midwestern retailer Hy-Vee says that it plans to shift its focus to a new event series promoting health and wellness in children, with a formal announcement expected next month.
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There may yet be hope for Iowa multisporters though, as the organiser plans to keep the triathlon going, according to reports – starting this summer. “We still have the permits for the city,” the Des Moines Register quotes race director Bill Burke as saying. “And we will be doing the new, inaugural Des Moines Triathlon.”
With whopping prize purses of as much as $200k for the male and female victors (each), the Hy-Vee Triathlon pulled in some of the sport’s biggest names since 2007, including Britain’s Brownlee brothers, Javier Gomez (who won convincingly in 2012), 220 columnist Tim Don and Jodie Stimpson.
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“Winning the Hy-Vee Triathlon in 2014 was a highlight in my career, and I want to thank Hy-Vee for their tremendous support of the sport over the last eight years,” said US athlete Hunter Kemper. “A legacy has been created here. And I look forward to learning more about the new event series Hy-Vee will announce.”
The first Hy-Vee Triathlon in 2007 drew in just over 1,000 competitors, and peaked in 2012 at just shy of 3,000 athletes, before dropping slightly in terms of participation numbers to around 2,500 in 2014.
(Images: Delly Carr)
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Have you raced the Hy-Vee Triathlon? Let us know in the comments below!