Niwata over Blatchford in Ishigaki
Three-time Olympian Kiyomi Niwata of Japan, who has had a distinguished elite career going back to 1997, earned her very first ITU World Cup victory Sunday with a stirring race-best run that gave her an 11-seconds margin of victory over ITU veteran Liz Blatchford of Great Britain.
Niwata, whose previous ITU World Cup bests were second places at Gamagori in 1997 and Ishigaki in 2005, and third places at Ishigaki in 2004 and 2009 and Corner Brook in 2005, came out of the water 11th in 18:50, had the second best bike in 1:12:28, and the fastest run in 36:03. Niwata, who finished 14th at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, 14th at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and a proud 9th at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, finished the race in 2:07:21.
Blatchford, who has one World Cup win on her resume – at Salford in 2005 – plus second place World Cup finishes at Tongyeong in 2003, Madrid and Rio in 2004, and Mooloolaba in 2006 was coming off a third place at the Mooloolaba World Cup and a 12th place at the Dextro Energy ITU World Championship round in Sydney this month. Blatchford pushed hard, but her 36:17 10k run was 14 seconds slower than Niwata’s closing kick.
Tomoko Sakimoto of Japan, whio finished second at Mooloolaba – one place ahead of Blatchford – closed out the podium in 2:08:11, 39 seconds back of Blatchford.
Mariko Adachi of Japan, who joined the four-women breakaway on the run in Sydney before falling 10 seconds back of surprise winner Barbara Riveros Diaz at the finish, had a flat tire which dropped her to 7th place, 1:46 behind Niwata.
American Amanda Felder, the 2008 USAT Collegiate National Champion from San Diego and recent PhD, finished 14th in 2:20:00.
Ishigaki Triathlon World Cup
Ishigaki, Japan
April 25, 2010
S 1.5l / B 40k R 10k
Results
Elite women
1. Kiyomi Niwata (JPN) 2:01:21
2. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 2:07:32
3. Tomoko Sakimoto (JPN) 2:08:11
4. Holly Aitkin (AUS) 2:08:36
5. Keira Pride (AUS) 2:08:36
6. Akane Tsuchihashi (JPN) 2:08:40
7. Mariko Adachi (JPN) 2:09:07
8. Yuka Sato (JPN) 2:10:04
9. Keiko Tanaka (JPN) 2:10:29
10. Melissa Trims (AUS) 2:11:16
14. Amanda Felder (USA) 2:20:00
