TRIATHLON: A rejuvenated Emma Moffatt put in a sensational display of “off the front” racing in round two of the ITU World Triathlon Series (WTS), only to come up short, against outstanding runners Gwen Jorgensen (USA) and under 23 world champion Non Stanford (GBR).

Leading the swim, establishing a 59 second buffer to the chase pack off the bike and leading for the majority of the 10km run, Moffatt had done everything right and looked the goods. Yet in the final minutes, she saw the race slip from her grasp.

On home soil and looking to be the first US woman to win a WTS race, it was a charged up Jorgensen who stormed past Moffatt in the final kilometre and then Stanford grabbed the Aussie in the shadows of the finish line, to relegate Moffy to third place.

There was no disgrace in Moffatt’s effort. The Beijing Olympic bronze medallist was just beaten by two athletes in sensational form and both possessing lethal run legs. 

While the women’s field was missing a few big names, the depth of talent and outstanding performances rendered it irrelevant, because the elite girls provided the massive crowd with some of the most exciting triathlon seen in recent years.

It all started to unfold on the run when the chase group of five, (Haug, Stanford, Stimpson, Australian Felicity Abram and Jorgensen), embarked on their quest to haul in the lead pair of Moffatt and Groff. 

By the end of the second lap Groff had been swallowed up and then Jorgensen did her own thing and went after Moffatt. At the start of the final lap the gap between the two was down to 29 seconds, but with every stride it became obvious Moffy’s lead was under threat.

"I wanted to take advantage of having the lead and take it out steady and hopefully build on it," Moffatt said. 

"But my hammy started pulling on me on that last lap and I was in a little bit of trouble.

"It was more a fact of finishing and not falling over."

Jorgensen produced a blistering run leg of 33m10s to sweep past Moffatt in the final kilometre and become the first American woman to win a World Series event.

"Her (Jorgensen's) weapon is the run and she uses it really well and there was no going with her today as she went past," Moffatt said.

"I felt like her legs were like twice as long as mine when she went past I was like this is not fair.

"But I knew they might be coming past, Non has been running well."

Stanford, the reigning under 23 world champion, just shaded the Australian for second over the last few metres.

Recovering from plantar fascia problems, young Aussie Ashleigh Gentle came into San Diego with some queries over her fitness, but she produced yet another sensational result with a ninth place.

Felicity Abram was well positioned throughout the race and running with the main contenders before catching the eye of the officials. She was forced to serve a penalty, effectively putting pay to any chance she had to repeat her sensational performance in Auckland. She finished in 15th place 2:31 behind Jorgensen.

Watch the video highlights here >>>

Brownlee delivers a masterclass

In the men’s race the following day Olympic gold medallist Alistair Brownlee demolished the field and reminding everyone why he is the world’s best triathlete. 

Second out of the water, pushing the pace on the ride and producing a 29:30 run split, (which included walking the last 50 metres) were the ingredients for Brownlee’s master class of brilliance. The fact that Brownlee delivered his stunning performance on the back of only six weeks of training must send shivers down the spine of his competitors left to battle for the minor podium spots. 

Jesus Gomar’s (ESP) spectacular dismount where he catapulted his bike over the dismount line and face planted into the blue carpet, highlighted the intensity of the men’s event at the ITU World Championship Series and signaled the effective start of the race for podium places. 

With 32 athletes (including the heavy hitters Alistair Brownlee, Javier Gomez, and Mario Mola) within 30 seconds of each other after 1h:17m of racing, it was time for an exhibition. Brownlee “eased” into the run with three minute km pace straight off the bike, putting eight seconds into Richard Murray and Joao Silva, 19 seconds to Adam Bowden (GBR), Steffen Justus (GBR) and Gomez, Mola (ESP) and Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) in the first lap. 

By lap two, and with more pavement to play with, Brownlee had a 22 second lead over Murray, Silva 32 secs, Polyanskiy, Justus, Mola and Gomez a minute down. With each step Brownlee’s lead just kept increasing and averaging 20kmh he gave the people of San Diego an exhibition in not only triathlon, but 10km road racing. Only second placed Richard Murray (RSA) and third placed Joao Silva (POR) were in the same postcode as the winner, so it is now back to the drawing board for the world’s best athletes to see if they can find a strategy to reel Brownlee in. 

“I enjoyed that but I think that run is short, to be honest, there is no way that I have run a 29:30,” Brownlee said. “I am sure you will think I am lying when I tell you I have only done six weeks training. I did Abu Dhabi six weeks ago and I hadn’t done any fast running up until then and I have just pushed on since then. I think it is good to have a winter without injury.” 

Brownlee had time to give a small tactical lesson to the vanquished in his post race interview. 

“I didn’t know how fast I was going to run to be honest and it is literally only this last week that I have felt half decent. It was a bit of an unknown, so I tried to push the bike. I don’t understand there were eight guys in that group on the bike and not one of them has finished in the top ten. I don’t know why they don’t push the bike, it makes no sense to me. I tried to get away and form a small group of four to see if we could work a bit better but that didn’t work.” 

“I don’t think some of these guys are tactically that proficient a lot of time,” he declared. 

Aussie Aaron Royle had a great swim and was riding with the big boys and pushing the pace with Brownlee early on, until lap six of the bike when he suffered a flat tyre and lost more than a minute, found himself in no man’s land and effectively ended his day finishing 35th.

The next ITU World Series race will be in Yokahama Japan, May 11-12.

ITU and Triathlon Australia