Mooloolaba to Vendula Frintova
Vendula Frintova chased hard on the bike and then ran down Tomoko Sakimoto and Liz Blatchford to win the 2010 Mooloolaba ITU Triathlon World Cup in Australia. Sakimoto and Blatchford finished second and third.
Americans Laura Bennett and Sarah Groff were setting the pace in the swim with Britain's Liz Blatchford and Aussie Felicity Sheedy-Ryan right there too. The speed up front caused the field of 42 to split into 2 packs and Bennett led the first one out of the water. Defending champion Kirsten Sweetland had missed the first group and got to T1 with the leaders out of sight, and Frintova and a host of others hot on her heels.
A group of 20 led by Blatchford and fellow Brit Jodie Stimpson set the pace on the bikes and the gap to the chasing 12 grew to over 90 seconds. In that second pack Sweetland and Frintova were working hard to limit the losses and eventually their efforts paid off. With about 10k to ride, the front group actually slowed down some as the tactical games for the run began. By the time they all reached the second transition, the chasers had narrowed down the gap to 30 seconds.
Bennett had a quick transition and was first out on the run with Stimpson, Debbie Tanner of New Zealand and Kathy Tremblay of Canada no far behind. Halfway through the run, Bennett and Tremblay fell of the pace and Kate Roberts from South Africa now led Stimpson, Sakimoto, Blatchford, Tanner and Lisa Mensink from the Netherlands. Frintova was 25 seconds behind at that point, but Sweetland was no longer in the picture to defend her title. With 2.5k to go, Frintova was within 10 seconds of Sakimoto and Blatchford and soon after the three athletes ran together. Frintova accelerated one more time and managed to get away from the other two and crossed the line first.
"I tried to work a lot during the bike especially in the hilly part to get back to the race and wasn't really fresh before the run. But 30 sec isn't that much and there was still a chance to smash the gap so I just tried it, but ran consistent as not to blow up at the end," said Frintova to slowtwitch.
Sakimoto held on to second and Blatchford captured third.
"I felt good through about seven kilometers of the run, but after that I couldn't make any more moves," added Blatchford. "The last three kilometers was just survival for me just to get around the course."
ITU Mooloolaba World Cup
Top 10 women
1. Vendula Frintova (CZE) 2:03:16
2. Tomoko Sakimoto (JPN) 2:03:17
3. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 2:03:43
4. Kate Roberts (RSA) 2:04:04
5. Sarah Groff (USA) 2:04:19
6. Jodie Stimpson (GBR) 2:04:20
7. Kiyomi Niwata (JPN) 2:04:22
8. Ainhoa Murua (ESP) 2:04:26
9. Lisa Mensink (NED) 2:04:35
10. Debbie Tanner (NZL) 2:04:36
