A flying Emma Snowsill took her anger out on the rest of the field to record a stunning victory in the ITU Elite Cup and pick up a US$200,000 winner’s cheque.

 The Queenslander, in just her second race back from injury, got into trouble early in the opening swim leg and was left stranded in a chase pack of riders to be a full minute down on the leaders going into the final 10km run. But she stormed through the field to catch the pacesetters before the 7km mark and went on to win by 16 seconds in a time of 1hr 59m 35s.

Australian team-mate Emma Moffatt prevailed over Great Britain’s Helen Jenkins in a desperate sprint finish to take the silver medal and the runner’s up prize of $50,000. It was the third time in a row Snowsill and Moffatt have filled the first two places in this prestigious event.

“I was a bit angry with myself because in the first lap of the swim I got annihilated,” Snowsill said. “Maybe I have to use my elbows a bit more, or maybe it just took me a while to get back into race mode because I was certainly off the pace at the start.

“I used that anger on the bike and tried to make amends for a poor start and for the disappointment of last year’s race here (when beaten into second by Moffatt). A lot has happened over the past 12 months and a lot has changed, so it was a matter of bottling that up and using it as energy. We did get a bit of time back on the leaders at one stage on the bike, but I was still pretty worried at the start of the run when I heard I was so far back.

Snowsill said her goal over the first half of the run was simply to see if she could “get within reach” of a lead group that boasted quality runners in Moffatt, Jenkins, New Zealand’s Andrea Hewitt and Great Britain’s Jodie Stimpson.

“I caught them on the third lap (of four) and I didn’t want to hang around that group for too long because I didn’t want to come down to a sprint finish,” Snowsill said. “At that stage Moffy was my main concern so I just keep going and tried to put some space between us and it seemed to work.”

Moffatt, who has taken bronze medals in tight sprint finishes in the two world championship races she has contested this season, was pleased enough with her performance.

“It’s always good to be in the front pack on the bike but I don’t think we made the most of it and could have organised ourselves a bit better to put some more time on the rest of the girls,” she said. “On the run, there were two u-turns on every lap so I could see Emma coming through the field pretty fast and there were also some good runners around me, so there was enough to worry about. Once Snowy caught me I tried to go with her, but that little campaign didn’t last long because she was absolutely flying.”         

 Moffatt, at least, won out in a head-to-head battle with Jenkins to take silver by a metre.

“My sister asked me to make the race exciting because she’s due to give birth and wanted to get things moving, so hopefully that did the trick for her – I’d better go and check my phone to see if anything has happened!”

In the men’s race, Great Britain’s Tim Don emerged from the pack with a standout run to win by four seconds after the entire field was glued together for most of the 40km journey on the bike.

New Zealand’s Kris Gemmell took silver, while Australia’s Courtney Atkinson continued his outstanding form to claim bronze a further four seconds back.   

It was anyone’s race going into the second transition, with Australian duo Atkinson and Brad Kahlefeldt, Olympic champion Germany’s Jan Frodeno, Kiwi veterans Gemmell and Bevan Docherty and last year’s winner Canadian Simon Whitfield all in the mix at the front of the field.

But it was Don who lay down the challenge over the opening half of the run and while the pack managed to close the gap, he held on for a brave win.

Atkinson has won silver medals in the past two ITU world championship races and picked up US$25,000 for his efforts today on the back of another strong running display. Of the other Australians, Dan Wilson recorded his best result of the season to come eighth, Kahlefeldt faded to finish 29^th, one place ahead of Dave Dellow, while Gareth Halverson was 50^th.

Photo credit:

ITU Triathlon Elite Cup, Des Moines, Iowa, United States

Elite Women Results:

1.Emma Snowsill (AUS) 1:59:35.

2. Emma Moffatt (AUS) 1:59:51.

3. Helen Jenkins (GBR) 1:59:51.

Elite Men Results:

1.Tim Don (GBR) 1:50:20.

2. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 1:50:24.

3. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:50:28