|
|
| articles |
Another World Cup Top-5 for Groves
Pictured: Lauren Groves at the Richards Bay World Cup at the first transition (Picture courtesy the ITU) After experiencing terrible luck last week in Madrid, Vancouver native Lauren Groves made the most out of a trip half-way around the world and finished 4th in the Richard’s Bay World Cup today in South Africa - her best ever performance in a World Cup race. Groves, who had a severe case of food poisoning 10 days ago, was unable to participate in the Madrid World Cup last weekend, made a remarkable recovery in a race which saw Australian, Emma Snowsill, dominate from start to finish. Despite the recent set-back, Groves continued her terrific World Cup run with another top-5 performance in a field that had many of the best female triathletes competing. So far this season, Groves has participated in 3 World Cup events – a fourth today, a sixth in early May in Mazatlan and a fifth in Ishigaki. These three top-10 results have vaulted Groves to a career best World Cup Ranking of fifth, behind world number 1 Vanessa Fernandes, Laura Bennett, Anja Dittmer and Annabel Luxford. Groves is just 16 points out of second position. Groves’ next World Cup race will be in Corner Brook on July 23rd. Groves said was a difficult decision to come all the way to South Africa given the way she was feeling in Spain but decided to take the chance. “I didn't put any expectations on myself for this race other than to go as hard as I could. I did my best to recover this week, replenish my stores and get my body moving again. My energy was back for the race but my stomach still wasn't 100 percent. Overall, I showed myself that my training is right on track and it's exciting to see that my run can still be near the top even on an off day. Plus, I can't really complain because 4th place is my best-ever finish - one step closer to a spot on that podium.” Lauren’s coach, Siri Lindley, says the food poisoning lasted for over 5 days which made it difficult to get ready for today’s race. “It’s amazing how mentally tough she is. I am so proud of her; it shows so much character to perform this way with all the recent adversity. I believe Lauren is capable of even more - if Lauren was healthy and training all week I think the result would have been even better – today she ran at only 75 percent.” Groves, who won a race early this year at the Roatan Bay Islands Pan American Cup, was just six seconds out of third place and a podium finish. Once again Lauren proved she is one of the world’s best when it comes to the run. Today she had the second best run time of 35:11 – better than Emma Snowsill – and finished in a time of 2:07:05. Today’s race, the seventh stop on the 2006 BG Triathlon World Cup Series, featured perfect weather conditions. Snowsill won the race in a time of 2:03:11. The next closest competitor was Anja Dittmer, from Germany, who finished three minutes and thirty seconds behind with a time of 2:06:41. Vendula Frintova, from the Czech Republic, had her first world cup podium, finishing in third with a time of 2:06:58. “I felt really strong out there,” said Snowsill. “I was really just testing myself. I haven’t raced since the Commonwealth Games and I wanted to see where I was at today.” After a two and a half month break from winning the Commonwealth Games, Snowsill was back in full force, blowing the competition away. Snowsill exited the water with a sixteen second lead over the next group that contained Dittmer, Frintova, Samantha Warriner (NZL), Nicola Spirig (SUI) and local favourite Mari Rabie (RSA). From there Snowsill decided not to wait for anyone else, breaking away on the bike, riding solo for the entire 40 km. A large chase group formed behind Snowsill but continued to lose time over each lap, eventually coming into the second transition 3:51 down. “I couldn’t tell how far ahead I was on the bike so I put my head down and went for it,” stated Snowsill. The chasers seemed uninterested in trying to catch Snowsill but instead were content to wait until the run to battle for the remaining two spots on the podium. “Emma is so strong,” stated Dittmer. “On the bike we all decided to wait until the run and race for second place.” Once the women hit the run course it was a race for second place. Dittmer went out like a shot and never looked back finishing strong with the fastest run of the day. Frintova was able to hold onto her small lead over Groves to claim the last podium spot. Triathlon Canada is the National Federation for the Sport of Triathlon and Duathlon in Canada. |
| Site by Zone 5 Design |
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 11, 2006