A dramatic end to the World Cup race
in Chile saw Gwen Jorgensen run down the field to earn the fourth gold of the
season. Gina Sereno was awarded silver and Vicky Holland (GBR) ends the season
with World Cup bronze. The first two women who crossed the finish line -Katie
Zaferes (USA) and Teresa Zimovjanova (CZE) along with two other athletes were
disqualified due to taking the wrong turn on the run course.
42 women lined up at the El Sol beach
in Vina del Mar, Chile, on Sunday ready for the last World Cup of the season,
the one that will provide the last Olympic qualification points for this year.
The morning was chilly, the water was
cold and choppy, and as soon as the horn gave the start, Djenyfer Arnold (BRA)
and Vicky Holland (GBR) put themselves on the lead positions, a few feet ahead
of other great swimmers like Mathilde Gaultier (FRA) or Katie Zaferes (USA),
who had also Gwen Jorgensen (USA) behind her, both of them fighting to improve
their rankings to try to guarantee a start on the USA team for the first World
Triathlon Championship Series races of 2024.
Arnold and Holland navigated the
waves coming back to the beach, but Holland struggled in the first transition
to get out of her wetsuit, her hands too cold to manoeuvre. While the Rio 2016
bronze medallist struggled in transition, Zaferes had an incredibly fast one,
and managed to catch the leading group, and led them out of transition slightly
ahead of the chasing group.
The first kilometer of the bike
course was vital, with the leading five (Zaferes, Arnold, Gaultier, Teresa
Zimovjanova (CZE) and Anna Godoy Contreras (ESP) pushing really hard on the
first climb up the hill, and the chasers, led by Holland, Jorgensen and Gina Sereno
(USA), trying to get organized behind them.
The leading five managed to stay
together in front for the whole 20km of the bike course, with a gap with the
chasers always between 15 and 30 seconds, and by the time they hit the second
transition to start the run, it was Gaultier the one faster and setting up the
pace, followed closely by Zimovjanova and Anna Godoy, Zaferes, meanwhile,
suffered trying to get her shoes on and lost a few seconds, but still managed
to catch up with Godoy before they completed the first kilometer, and then
Gaultier and Zimovjanova at the end of the first lap.
But little did they know the drama
that was about to unfold. With Zaferes leading the small lead group of four,
they all passed straight through transition under the finish gantry on a
straight line, not following the race course that was diverting athletes beside
transition as they completed lap one and back on the road a few meters after
avoiding any potential lapped runners being in the finish straight. Behind the
leading four, Arnold realized that she was going the wrong way and turned
around, while Jorgensen and Sereno, at that moment in 6th and 7th place,
followed the correct course, as did the rest of the field behind them.
Not conscious about the wrong turn,
Zaferes sprinted with one kilometer to go to cross the finish line three
seconds ahead of Zimovjanova, while Jorgensen had a fantastic run and climbed
to the third place on the tape. Godoy was all smiles in fourth place, while
Gaultier rounded the top five.
But as athletes kept crossing the
finish line, some athletes and coaches started filing protests against the ones
that had taken the wrong course, with the Head referee putting the results on
hold and the protests -four of them-
taken to the Competition Jury.
“I was concentrated on the course and
took what for me at that moment was the logical path. There were no officials
directing us and I did not realize that we were slightly off the course. We
passed through the finish gantry in all the laps of the bike and ride and that
is what I naturally did on the run. It is unfortunate and of course
unintentional, but as the rules state you need to follow the prescribed course
and I didn’t do that. I am really proud of my performance today, though. I
executed the race exactly as I had planned and am trying to focus on that,”
said Zaferes.
Their final decision, after hearing
all the parts, was to disqualify Zaferes, Zimovjanova, Godoy and Gaultier for
not following the prescribed course, and the final podium was awarded to
Jorgensen, Gina Sereno -sixth initially on the finish line- and Vicky Holland
-7th on the finish line-.
“This is not the way that you want to
win a race. I would have much rather raced to the line on a fair competition,
but we all knew the course and the map. When I saw them going straight I was
very confused, I didn’t know why they were going that way and didn’t know what
to do, but I decided to trust myself. I told myself that I know the course and
I just should follow the course, and I took a longer line. It is a really
unfortunate situation and we are all sad about it. But I had a good race. My
swim was almost there. I’m coming from a lot of racing and I feel like I
haven’t had the chance of training, I’m always either racing, recovering or
traveling, with so many trips that I had to do to get points. But today I gave
everything I had until the end, and I am proud of that,“ said Jorgensen after
the medal ceremonies.
For the American, Vina del Mar is her
fourth World Cup victory this season, where she has podiumed in six of her
seven World Cups on her comeback season.
Today’s silver medal was the first of
the World Cup season for Sereno, who also got silver in Vina del Mar last year,
and who was also second in the Pan American Games Mixed Relay race last week.
Talking about the incident, Sereno said: “We heard people yelling at us
‘izquierda, izquierda’ -left, in Spanish- and I was familiar with the course,
because I had done it last week and also last year. But these type of things
are mentioned usually in the race briefing. My heart goes to those who are
being penalized for this, because they were at the front, they were dominating
the race and we don’t want to be on the podium because of this but at the same
time we all have to follow the rules”.
Her third place today was the first
podium for Vicky Holland since Mooloolaba World Cup 2020, on her fourth race
after giving birth to her first child nine months ago. “It is really nice to be
back on a podium even if it is in unconventional circumstances, and absolutely
not the way that I wanted to be on the podium. But there’s nothing I can do
about it. Thinking about my race, I am really pleased with my swim, I came out
of the water in second place today. I have been swimming really well on
training, so I was delighted with that. Then I struggled in transition and lost
like 30 seconds, but overall I managed to get on the chase group of the bike
and work really hard, and had a great run as well”, she said.
Italy’s Angelica Prestia ended in the
fourth position and Djenyfer Arnold closed the top 5.
Results: Elite Women
1.Gwen Jorgensen USA 00:57:28
2.Gina Sereno USA 00:58:00
3.Vicky Holland GBR 00:58:10
4.Angelica Prestia ITA 00:58:25
5.Djenyfer Arnold BRA 00:58:34
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