Triathlon: Whitfield Grabs Second Triathlon World Cup Gold of the Season

Sunday, July 22, 2007 - 06:24 PM

Kitzbühel, Austria - Today in the mountain town of Kitzbühel, Austria, Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield of Victoria claimed his second world cup title of the season, ninth of his career, in a dramatic sprint finish with former European Champion Frederic Belaubre of France and 2006 Commonwealth Games champion, Brad Kahlefeldt of Australia.

Whitfield nipped the two top contenders at the line in a finish time of 1 hour 42 minutes and 56 seconds. With his ninth career world cup win, the 6-time Canadian champion moves into third place for most wins of all-time.

Although Whitfield was the only Canadian medalist on the day, young phenom Kirsten Sweetland, also of Victoria, managed another top-10 finish for her budding career, with an eighth place.

In the Men’s event, Whitfield would push the pace from start to finish, exiting the water in first position, something he has never done before, and even trying to breakaway from the 50-man, lumbering bike group at one point. Whitfield, who has never been known as a strong swimmer, has been working extremely hard on his swim as of late and showed his progression today.

The only other Canadian man on the start line was recent Pan American Games silver medalist Brent McMahon of Victoria. McMahon would pull out of today’s race during the run segment, citing fatigue.

2007 Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Men Results 1. WHITFIELD, Simon (CAN) 1:42:56
2. BELAUBRE, Frederic (FRA) 1:42:57 +:01
3. KAHLEFELDT, Brad (AUS) 1:43:01 +:05


In the Women’s event, reigning world Junior champion and 2007 world cup winner Kirsten Sweetland of Victoria was the top Canadian in eighth place. Sweetland was up with the leaders for the entire race until the final three kilometres on the run, when she could no longer keep up with the hectic pace, dropping off to a top-10 finish.

The only other Canadian woman in the field, Lauren Groves of Vancouver, failed to make the front on the bike, losing over two minutes to the leaders and was unable to recover.

Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand led out of the opening swim in a time of 19:44 and would never look back as the former Under23 World Champion looked in fine form winning the 2007 Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup in a sprint finish with local Austrian athlete Eva Dollinger. Hewitt ran away from Dollinger and the rest of the field in the final metres of the 10-kilometre run course to claim the first world cup victory of her career in a time of 1 hour 54 minutes and 31 seconds.

2007 Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Women Results 1. HEWITT, Andrea (NZL) 1:54:31
2. DOLLINGER, Eva (AUT) 1:54:34 +:02
3. SAMUELS, Nicky (NZL) 1:54:45 +:13
8. SWEETLAND, Kirsten (CAN) 1:55:27 +:56
22. GROVES, Lauren (CAN) 1:57:17 +2:45