Stimpson rules Commonwealth
Jodie Stimpson pulled away from Canada’s Kirsten Sweetland with 400 meters to go to win the first triathlon gold medal for England at the Commonwealth Games.
Stimpson, apparently fully recovered from injuries in a transition area crash at the Yokohama round of the World Triathlon Series, hung in the first group on the swim and bike and stayed with a lead group of six that also included Sweetland, Holland, Australian Emma Jackson, Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand, and Northern Ireland’s Aileen Reid on the first of three laps of the run.
Jackson pushed the pace on the second lap, but it was Sweetland who surged to the front at the beginning of the bell lap and shattered the calm at the front. First Reid, then Jackson and Hewitt dropped back leaving two Brits and a Canadian to fight for the medals,
Midway through the final lap, Holland faded back while Sweetland and Stimpson were running side by side to the blue carpet and history. Ultimately, Stimpson showed the early form that brought her two straight World Triathlon Series wins to start the season and pulled away with 400 meters to go.
Stimpson simply found another gear on the run, finishing with a women's race-fastest 34:21 split that was precisely 5 seconds faster than Sweetland’s 10k run. Stimpson finished in 1:58:56 with a margin of victory of precisely 5 seconds. In one of the best performances of her career, Holland had a 3rd-best women's run split of 34:37 which gave her 3rd place, 11 seconds behind Sweetland.
This win has no bearing on the WTS world championship chase, but it clearly was Stimpson’s biggest result of her career – outshining her estimable second place finish in the WTS series last year and her 2014 WTS wins at Auckland and Cape Town.
Sweetland’s silver medal was a triumph that marked her long road back to form after five years of injury and illness following sensational early career success.
Vicky Holland’s bronze medal was welcome validation of her talents after serving as a second domestíque with Lucy Hall for Helen Jenkins at the 2012 Olympics. Hall and Holland indeed did help Stimpson, leading the England to a comfortable 1-2-3 20 seconds lead in the swim which saved Stimpson some energy for the deciding run.
Due to the splitting up of English WTS talent into teams from England, northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Helen Jenkins and 2013 WTS world champion Non Stanford were due to compete for Wales. But injuries dropped those two favorites from the starting field.
Commonwealth Games
Glasgow, Scotland
July 24, 2014
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k
Results
Women
1. Jodie Stimpson (ENG) 1:58:56
2. Kirsten Sweetland (CAN) 1:59:01
3. Vicky Holland (ENG) 1:59:11
4. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 1:59:25
5. Emma Jackson (AUS) 1:59:34
6. Aileen Reid (NIRL) 1:59:46
7. Emma Moffatt (AUS) 2:01:31
8. Flora Duffy (BER) 2:02:18
9. Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) 2:03:24
10.Nicky Samuels (NZL) 2:03:52
11. Lucy Hall (ENG) 2:05:13
