NEWS

World Champs – Elite Women Preview

By World Triathlon Admin | 07 Jun, 2008

Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes is the red hot favourite to win her second world championships in Vancouver on Sunday having dominated the sport in the past two years. The 22-year old has won a record 20 world cups and is a five-time European Champion.

Click here to watch footage from the 2008 Vancouver BG Triathlon World Championships.

Competition arrives from Australia in the form of 2006 under23 world champion Erin Densham and New Plymouth World Cup winner and last year’s world number two Emma Moffatt.   While New Zealand sends a powerful team including Samantha Warriner who came from behind to win last year’s test event.  She has been in British Columbia for the past few weeks training with good friend Jill Savege of Canada.  The Beijing bound Warriner already has a world cup win after taking the Tongyeong title in South Korea.  The Kiwi contingent also includes the rest of its Olympic team, Debbie Tanner and Andrea Hewitt.

Click here for full elite women’s start list

The home team Canada will have four contenders including local favourite Lauren Groves who will have plenty of support as the only Vancouver native on the elite national team.  With a short hop from the island, Kirsten Sweetland, the 2006 junior world champion will be gunning for a big result as her Olympic hopes rest on the race.  Same goes for her teammates Kathy Tremblay and Carolyn Murray.  All need a top-8 for an automatic spot on the Canadian Olympic team, to join Groves who has already been nominated to the team.

Canada’s neighbours from the south, the United States, have also sent a fully loaded squad including Laura Bennett who took bronze behind Fernandes in Hamburg last year.  As a four-time world championships medallist, Bennett is proven performer on the big stage and will look to get on the podium for a fifth time.  Also wearing the red white and blue is Julie Ertel, winner of the U.S. Olympic trials and Sarah Haskins, who finished runner-up to Warriner here last year. 

Sweden’s Lisa Norden has been one of the breakthrough successes from the Team BG Scholarship programme as she has collected two world cup medals in 2008 and a bronze medal at the European championships.  She was crowned under23 World Champion last year and will look to make the podium in her elite debut.

The 2004 Olympic champion Kate Allen from Austria is also here and needs a solid race to earn Olympic points.  The world championship is the final event in ITU’s 2-year Olympic qualifying period.  Currently Austria is on the bubble to send a full team of three and is trying to chase down France in the Olympic rankings.

Click here for official website of the world championships

Click here for ITU’s world championship page for videos, photos and a recap of last year


Vanessa Fernandes savours her first world championship last year in Hamburg

Related Event: 2008 Vancouver BG Triathlon World Championships
05 - Jun, 2008 • event pageall results
Results: Elite Men
1. Javier Gomez Noya ESP 01:49:48
2. Bevan Docherty NZL 01:50:12
3. Reto Hug SUI 01:50:17
4. Hendrik De Villiers RSA 01:50:18
5. Matthew Reed USA 01:50:27
6. Simon Whitfield CAN 01:50:27
7. Igor Sysoev RUS 01:50:28
8. Tony Moulai FRA 01:50:31
9. Paul Tichelaar CAN 01:50:32
10. Ivan Vasiliev RUS 01:50:34
Results: Elite Women
1. Helen Jenkins GBR 02:01:37
2. Sarah Haskins USA 02:01:41
3. Samantha Warriner NZL 02:02:32
4. Erin Densham AUS 02:02:32
5. Emma Moffatt AUS 02:02:34
6. Felicity Abram AUS 02:03:35
7. Sarah True USA 02:04:08
8. Kate Allen AUT 02:04:14
9. Debbie Tanner NZL 02:04:24
10. Vanessa Fernandes POR 02:04:34
Results: U23 Men
1. Alistair Brownlee GBR 01:54:37
2. Gregor Buchholz GER 01:54:56
3. Martin Van Barneveld NZL 01:54:59
4. Todd Leckie GBR 01:55:12
5. Alexander Bryukhankov RUS 01:55:36
6. Lukas Salvisberg SUI 01:55:46
7. Nils Frommhold GER 01:55:56
8. Alberto Casadei ITA 01:55:59
9. Joshua Maeder AUS 01:56:09
10. Tony Dodds NZL 01:56:10
Results: U23 Women
1. Daniela Ryf SUI 02:09:30
2. Jasmine Oeinck USA 02:10:02
3. Mari Rabie RSA 02:11:35
4. Olesya Prystayko UKR 02:12:51
5. Barbara Riveros CHI 02:13:02
6. Justine Whipple USA 02:13:08
7. Yuliya Yelistratova UKR 02:13:32
8. Renáta Koch HUN 02:13:55
9. Sarah Fladung GER 02:14:25
10. Kerry Spearing IRL 02:14:57
Results: Junior Men
1. Vincent Luis FRA 00:57:06
2. Denis Vasiliev RUS 00:57:36
3. Jonathan Brownlee GBR 00:57:43
4. Joshua Amberger AUS 00:57:52
5. Rodrigo Gonzalez MEX 00:58:19
6. Franz Löschke GER 00:58:24
7. Min Ho Heo KOR 00:58:26
8. Igor Polyanskiy RUS 00:58:35
9. Tom Davison NZL 00:58:39
10. David Obozil FRA 00:58:40
Results: Junior Women
1. Kirsty Mcwilliam GBR 01:04:05
2. Ashleigh Gentle AUS 01:04:43
3. Zsófia Tóth HUN 01:04:47
4. Ashley Finaughty ZIM 01:05:07
5. Emma Jackson AUS 01:05:18
6. Alena Stawczynski GER 01:05:22
7. Claudia Rivas MEX 01:05:23
8. Maaike Caelers NED 01:05:27
9. Paula Findlay CAN 01:05:28
10. Nataliya Efremova RUS 01:05:32