Swiss repeat at ITU Team Worlds
The Swiss team of Daniela Ryf, Ruedi Wild, Nicola Spirig and Sven Riederer combined for a repeat victory Sunday at the ITU Team Triathlon World Championship held on home soil in Lausanne. The Swiss squad finished in 1:13:31 and scored a two-peat win by 40 seconds over the French team of Jessica Harrison, Frederic Belaubre, Carole Peon and David Hauss.
A New Zealand team consisting of Kate McIlroy, Tony Dodds, Nicky Samuels and Ryan Sissons completed the podium in third place, 10 seconds back of the French.
Competitors raced on four-person teams, with two men and two women racing for each country. Each of the four athletes completed a 275-meter swim, a 6k bike and a 1.5k run before tagging the next member of the team.
“It’s a perfect day for the Swiss team,” said Riederer, a bronze medalist at the 2004 Olympics.
After the first swim, six women took the lead on the bike, including Ryf and Sweden’s Lisa Norden, who won the women’s individual sprint World Championship Saturday. Ryf then charged to the front on the run, giving teammate Wild 10-second lead.
The teams from Sweden, France, New Zealand Switzerland and Australia started the second bike split in a tight pack. France’s Frederic Belaubre went to the front and started there run with a small gap. After the run, Belaubre handed teammate Peon a 15-second lead.
Leg three was dominated by Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig, who easily caught leaders New Zealand’s Nicky Samuels and France’s Carole Peon on the bike and then charged to a 20-second gap starting the run. After the mile run along Lausanne’s Lake Geneva waterfront, Spirig handed Olympic medalist Riederer a 25-second lead starting his leg.
Riederer increased that lead by 15 seconds and hit the tape with a 40-second margin over France’s David Hauss to clinch Switzerland’s second straight win for the Team World title. New Zealand took third, 50 seconds back of the winners.
The USA1 team of Amanda Felder, Dustin McLarty, Jennifer Spieldenner and Cameron Dye took 8th in 1:16:33.
Twenty teams representing 17 countries contested the second-ever ITU Team Worlds – and for now Switzerland holds the only gold.
ITU Team Triathlon World Championship
Lausanne, Switzerland
August 22, 2010
4 x 275m swim/ 6k bike/ 1.5k run
Results
1. Switzerland 1 (Ryf, Wild, Spirig, Riederer) 1:13:31
2. France 1 (Harrison, Belaubre, Peon, Hauss) 1:14:11
3. New Zealand 1 (McIlroy, Dodds, Samuels, Sissons) 1:14:21
4. Germany 1 (Knapp, Loschke, Haug, Buchholz) 1:16:04
5. Switzerland 2 (Annaheim, De Kaenel, Di Marco, Gacond) 1:16:26
6. Ukraine 1 (Ryzhykh, Glushenko, Prystayko, Syutkin) 1:16:32
7. Hungary 1 (Kovacs, Fecskovics, Vanek, Faldum) 1:16:33
8. USA 1 (Felder, McLarty, Spieldenner, Dye) 1:16:33
9. Australia 2 (Roberts, Sexton, Sheedy-Ryan, Box) 1:16:35
10. Sweden 1 (Norden, Vikner, Hjalmarsson, Sandberg) 1:16:40
