NEWS

Birtwhistle (AUS) brilliant for men’s U23 world title

By Chelsea White | 17 Sep, 2015
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The 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Chicago officially kicked off with the Under23 men’s World Champion being crowned.

The 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Chicago officially kicked off Thursday morning with the Under23 men’s World Champion being crowned. Jacob Birtwhistle now tallies one title for the Australian nation as he was victorious in the first triathlon race of the Grand Final event.

Birtwhistle demonstrated leadership throughout the three disciplines, as one of the top men on each leg of the triathlon. In the last lap of the run, he separated himself from a five-man front pack to ultimately win the race and take home the World Champion honour. Coming across the finish line to stake out the remaining two spots on the podium was Spanish compatriots David Castro Fajardo with silver and Nan Oliveras with bronze.

“After the silver medal last year in the juniors I was pretty devastated; I wanted to redeem myself so to speak. I wanted nothing but gold today, so I am really happen to have it and take away the win,” Birtwhistle said. “It has been a pretty good year for me, there has been some ups and definitely some downs in my first year racing the WTS circuit. I have had some really good races and some not too good ones. I was happy to start off the season really well domestically in Australia and Oceania and now finish off really well in the Worlds.”

The early morning race started just as the sun peaked up from the Lake Michigan horizon. The Under23 swim course featured just one 1500 metre lap, which left the athletes finishing in the water without a second dive from the pontoon. Clearly dominating the distance was Seunghun Seo (KOR), who exited the swim with a lead of 13 seconds heading into the first transition area.

The bike course started out with a group of 30 men led by Alexis Lepage (CAN) and Gordon Benson (GBR), with the chase down by just over 30 seconds. But halfway through the bike course, the chase made a huge push and was able to make up over 10 seconds on the leaders. That push would continue for the remaining two laps until the bell sounded signaling the final bike lap, the chase merged to the front and caused a peloton to form that tallied 41 athletes.

With a lead pack large in size, the second transition zone was busy and crowded. But that didn’t stop Birtwhistle, Benson, Lepage and Kevin McDowell (USA) from blasting through and taking an early lead to start off the run leg. During the first 2.5 kilometres, Lepage dropped off and instead was replaced with Spaniards Castro and Oliveras. The five men grouped together and ran as leaders for the majority of the last field.

Not until the last kilometre did the podium seem to work itself out. Birtwhistle kicked in a last burst of energy to sprint ahead and run into the finish line solo and claim his World Championship crown. A crown that hopefully will add an extra boost of confidence as he is also set to compete in the elite men’s race on Saturday, as well.

Castro came onto the carpet 14 seconds later to finish out the race with a silver medal.

“I’m really happy with the Spanish selection, we see Javier, Mario and Alonzo as motivators,” Castro said of being part of the strong Spanish men’s team. “The last lap was crazy. It was attack, attack, attack. To come second, it’s amazing.”

The Spanish team was especially strong today as Oliveras was able to take home the bronze medal and give Spain two medals to its total.

With the added motivation of running on home soil, McDowell finished the day in fourth place, a strong position as he now prepares to tackle the elite men’s race.

Related Event: 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Chicago
15 - Sep, 2015 • event pageall results
Results: Elite Men
DNF. Hunter Kemper USA DNF
DNF. Ryan Fisher AUS DNF
DNF. Kyle Jones CAN DNF
DNF. Marten Van Riel BEL DNF
DNF. Irving Perez MEX DNF
DNF. Andrea Secchiero ITA DNF
DNF. Lukas Hollaus AUT DNF
DNF. Bryan Keane IRL DNF
DNF. Alexander Bryukhankov RUS DNF
DNF. Kristian Blummenfelt NOR DNF
Results: Elite Women
1. Gwen Jorgensen USA 01:55:36
2. Non Stanford GBR 01:56:05
LAP. Luisa Baptista BRA LAP
LAP. Jessica Broderick USA LAP
DSQ. Elena Danilova RUS DSQ
DNF. Katrien Verstuyft BEL DNF
DNF. Julie Stupp USA DNF
DNF. Vendula Frintova CZE DNF
DNF. Sarah-Anne Brault CAN DNF
DNF. Kirsten Sweetland CAN DNF
Results: Junior Men
LAP. Anton Ponomarev RUS LAP
DSQ. Edward Macalalad PHI DSQ
DNF. Diego Alejandro Lopez Acosta MEX DNF
DNF. Lasse Lührs GER DNF
DNF. Samuel Dickinson GBR DNF
DNF. Fynn Thompson NZL DNF
DNF. Kauê Willy BRA DNF
DNF. Tyler Smith BER DNF
DNF. Emil Deleuran Hansen DEN DNF
DNF. Oliver Blecher CAN DNF
Results: Junior Women
1. Laura Lindemann GER 00:57:28
2. Taylor Knibb USA 00:58:14
DNF. Jeanine Kocken NED DNF
DNF. Cassandre Beaugrand FRA DNF
DNF. Angelica Olmo ITA DNF
DNF. Minami Kubono JPN DNF
DNF. Maude Elaine Le Roux RSA DNF
DNF. Sara Skardelly AUT DNF
DNF. Madalena Amaral Almeida POR DNF
DNF. Hellen Lopez GUA DNF
Results: U23 Men
1. Jacob Birtwhistle AUS 01:40:51
LAP. Tautvydas Kopustas LTU LAP
LAP. Joscar Jesus Duque Muñoz VEN LAP
DSQ. Ian Manthey IRL DSQ
DNF. Xavier Grenier-Talavera CAN DNF
DNF. Filipe Azevedo POR DNF
DNF. Cameron Todd NZL DNF
DNF. Itamar Alster ISR DNF
DNF. Mohamed Elsaied EGY DNF
DNF. Yaroslav Potanin RUS DNF
Results: U23 Women
1. Audrey Merle FRA 01:04:35
2. Leonie Periault FRA 01:04:35
3. Melanie Santos POR 01:04:46
4. Avery Evenson USA 01:04:52
5. Miriam Casillas García ESP 01:05:12
6. Vanesa De La Torre MEX 01:05:20
7. Natalie Van Coevorden AUS 01:05:23
8. Chloe Cook GBR 01:05:26
9. Johanna Gartman USA 01:05:29
10. Lizeth Rueda Santos MEX 01:05:41
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