Wasle, Bjornstad take ITU Winter Gold

Austrian Xterra and Winter Triathlon veteran Carina Wasle, 24, and Norwegian former biathlon champion Tor-Halvor Bjornstad, 30, took the elite gold medals Saturday at the 2009 ITU Winter Triathlon Championship in Gaishorn, Austria.

With the absence of six-time ITU Winter Triathlon World Champion Sigrid Mutscheller, the women’s race was seen as wide open as the gun went off in -10 degrees Celsius temperatures. Wasle, who finished third at the 2008 US Xterra championships and 8th at Xterra Worlds in Maui, took charge midway through the opening 7.5 kilometer run and never relinquished her lead on the way to a 98-second margin of victory over runner-up Hanna Tronnes of Norway. Wasle, who in 2008 won the Kaprun Winter Triathlon, the Flassin Winter Triathlon World Cup, and took second at the EM Winter Triathlon in Gaishorn, crossed the line of the 7.5km run, 12.5 km mountain bike and 9.9km cross country ski in 1:32:28 to take her first ITU Winter Triathlon World Championship gold.

"It was really hard from the beginning,” Wasle told ITU Media. “It was the tactic to run very fast from the start, because I knew that the others are very good in the skiing so I needed the gap during the race. The spectators really pushed me."

Gunnison, Colorado mother of two Rebecca Dussault, 28, a 2006 cross country ski Winter Olympian, took the bronze for America’s very first ITU Winter Triathlon medal. Dussault, a devout Roman Catholic who wrote on her website that her ambition is to “live in heroic virtue and become a Saint,” charged hard out of the gate and finished the opening run 40 seconds down, held second at 90 seconds down on the bike. Dussault cut deeply into Wasle’s lead at the beginning of the cross country ski, but faded from silver to bronze under the late race charge of Norwegian Hanna Trones.

In the men’s race, pre-race favorite and defending champion Arne Post of Norway took the lead on the opening run, with only Italian Alessandro De Gasperi able to stay in touch. A small group of five stayed 40 seconds back, with Bjornstad and former ITU Winter Triathlon champ Sigi Bauer waiting for the bike. On the bike, Bjornstad passed Post and Bauer and took charge, only to surrender his lead with a tardy transition. Post took the lead from Bauer in the early stages of the 8-lap, 9.9 km cross country ski, but the Bjornstad Express rolled past both by the fifth lap and hit the line first in 1:18:08, taking the win by 20 seconds to dethrone his countryman Post in his second-ever Winter Triathlon. Italy’s Antonioli caught a fading Bauer to take the bronze in 1:19:42, with the Austrian Bauer 31 seconds further back in fourth.

“I used to be a biathlon skier, but when I started to work, I could not train enough for shooting, but found I loved mountain biking” Bjornstad told ITU Media. “I am not a good runner, but when I can keep my head cool and not get overheated, I have good legs left for the rest of the competition.”

2009 ITU Winter Triathlon Championship
Gaishorn, Austria
14 February 2009
R 7.5km/ B 12.5 km/ 9.9km Ski

Results

Elite Women

1. Carina Wasle AUT 1:32:28
2. Hanna Tronnes NOR 1:34:06
3. Rebecca Dussault USA 1:35:30
4. Camilla Hott Johansen NOR 1:36:20
5. Tatiana Charochkina RUS 1:37:00
6. Anne Haug GER 1:37:06
7. Sarke Grabmullerova CZE 1:41:29
8. Klaudia Meisterhofer AUT 1:41:35
9. Emma Garrard USA 1:42:04
10. Guiliana Lamastra ITA 1:46:33

Elite Men

1. Tor Halvor Bjornstad NOR 1:18:08
2. Arne Post NOR 1:18:28
3. Daniel Antonioli ITA 1:19:42
4. Sigi Bauer AUT 1:20:13
5. Pavel Andreev RUS 1:20:13
6. Alessandro De Gasperi ITA 1:20:55
7. Oswald Weisenhorn ITA 1:21:46
8. Andreas Svanebo SWE 1:21:56
9. Pavel Jindra CZE 1:21:57
10. Tomas Dolezal CZE 1:23:26

U23 Women

1. Elisabeth Sveum NOR 1:33:47
2. Anita Dalen NOR 1:42:03
3. Angelika Perfler AUT 1:55:43

U23 Men

1. Peter Mosny SVK 1:21:35
2. Dimitry Bregeda RUS 1:22:09
3. Johan Noraker Nossen 1:23:57

Junior Women

1. Tone Dalen NOR 1:01:24
2. Kairi Schmidt EST 1:03:19
3. Lisa Perterer AUT 1:03:55

Junior Men

1. Felix Waldhuber AUT 52:21
2. Vit Zahula CZE 53:50
3. Pavel Yakimov RUS 53:57