ITU Worlds Update - Men's Version

The men's Elite Race also went this afternoon. 2 Canadian men can stamp their ticket to Beijing with a Top 8 finish, Paul Tichelaar and Kyle Jones, while Colin Jenkins and Brent McMahon want to impress the selection committee with a solid race.

The race started with a super-competitive swim. Two big surprises: the first swimmer and the last swimmer came out within a minute of each other AND the first swimmer to transition was Simon Freaking Whitfield. His swim improvement gives all of us crappy swimmers proof that you can improve in your 30's!!

So with so many top cyclists in the main pack, it was expected that someone tried to break away from the field. Greg Bennett, who needs a top finish from either him or Brad Sexton to ensure Australia the 3 male spots in Beijing, got away on Lap 6 (of 8) but it was 48 cyclists (and almost all the contenders) who got off the bike at the end of 40 km.

Everyone expected Javier Gomez to go out fast, and he did, but at the end of one 3.3km lap, there were about a dozen guys all in a big pack. Including medal contenders such as Matt Reed, Reto Hug, Bevan Docherty, a trio of fast Russians as well as Simon Whitfield and Paul Tichelaar! It was shaping up to be a great finish.

Lap 2 the inevitable happened. Javier Gomez just ran away from the field. He is unbelievable. His break stretched out the field, with only Bevan Docherty and Reto Hug trying to go with Gomez. But Gomez still had 20 seconds at the end of lap 2. His "Crush Their Spirit" run strategy was working well.

Lap 3. Since the online coverage was fairly brutal, we had to wait until a km to go to see the finish unfold. Gomez still had a huge lead, and coasted to a 24 second win. Docherty ditched Hug for silver medal, while Hug held off South Africa's Hendrik De Villiers for Bronze. After these 4, there were 9 or so runners in a big pack, including Top-8-or-bust Paul Tichelaar. There was no separation across the finish line. Matt Reed was 5th, Whitfield 6th, Sysoev 7th, Moulai 8th, Tich 9th! 5th thru 9th was less than 5 seconds. And the difference between 8th and 9th was 7/10th of a second!! For the second time today, no Canadians got the automatic bid.





The other Canadians finished 17th (Brent McMahon), 55th (Colin Jenkins), and 61st (Kyle Jones). And now we wait, as Triathlon Canada will announce the Beijing team on Monday.

Maybe this picture shows that Whitfield is trying to get Gomez to compete for Canada?