Triathlon, November 6: After a decade of international competition, celebrated Tasmanian triathlete Joe Gambles finally claimed his first Triathlon World Championship podium finish, winning a silver medal in a modified ITU Long Distance World Championships in Henderson, Nevada today.
Officials were forced to cancel the four-kilometre swim leg due to “to unsafe water conditions” leaving the course at a 120km bike leg followed by a 30km run.
The 29-year-old-year-old Gambles, who like so many triathletes splits his time between home and Boulder, Colorado, staged a neck-and-neck battle in the run with France’s defending champion Sylvain Sudrie to determine the minor placings.
Gambles, a bike-run specialist and one of the finest non-drafting triathletes in the world, finished two-minutes 42 seconds behind the USA’s gold medallist Jordan Rapp with Sudrie just 27 seconds behind in third.
In the end, the difference between Gambles and Sudrie came down to their T2 transition with Gambles time 33 faster than his rival.
“I’m so happy to end the season on a high! Silver medal at the ITU Long Distance Champs!” Gambles said on Twitter.
Rapp, who suffered life-threatening injuries when he was hit by a car on a training ride in California in March last year, took 5hrs and 15 seconds to win his first world title.
Gambles showed true grit to hang on to the silver when he took 5hrs 02 mins and 57 seconds to complete the shortened course with Sudrie taking 5hrs 3 mins and 15 seconds for the bronze.
Early on, it looked like Denmark’s Martin Jensen might be able to go a few places better than the two bronze medals he had already collected at ITU long distance worlds, when he established a six minute lead on the technical and hilly 120 bike leg - that included an estimated 6000 feet elevation rise.
The next athletes to come into T2 - with only a few seconds between them were Sudrie, Gambles and Rapp with three minutes to the fifth place held by Michael Raelert (GER).
At the beginning of the run it looked like Jensen would be able to hold on, but Rapp had other ideas, as he moved steadily through the field and then closed the gap.
At the start of the final lap, Rapp overtook Jensen and went on to beat Gambles by almost three minutes, with the fastest run split of 1 hour, 49 minutes and 31 seconds.
Meanwhile in the women’s race, Queensland’s Nikki Butterfield, finished fourth after leading the field off the bike with British pair Rachel Joyce and Leanda Cave continuing GB’s rise in international Triathlon with their 1-2 finish.
America’s Meredith Kessler won bronze with the only other Australian Christine Hemphill 19th.
Butterfield, the former Australian representative cyclist was first off the bike in 3hrs 31.13 but her seventh fastest 30km run time of 2:11.58 saw her fade out of podium contention.
Cold air temperature combined with the 17 degree water temperature put the swim course outside of ITU athlete safety regulations.
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