It was a record-equalling third title for Bermuda’s Flora Duffy on Saturday in Edmonton, bronze ensuring that she becomes the first triathlete in history to be crowned both the World and Olympic Champion in the same year.
This time around it was USA’s Taylor
Knibb dictating the outcome of the race with the kind of imposing bike ride
more commonly associated with Duffy, France’s Leonie Periault cruising to a
career-best silver. The battle still raged for the overall Series bronze
between Taylor Spivey and Maya Kingma, the American able to hold off the young Dutch
star down the chute.
Riding solo for the entire 40km,
Knibb then ran her way to gold and second place in the 2021 Series behind
Bermuda’s star.
“It was a very hard race. I had a
pretty mediocre swim and had some ground to make up and I knew I had to try and
get close before Taylor got off the front,” admitted Duffy. “Once she attacked
she was gone, that was such a great performance from her today and as soon as
she was gone it became more of a defensive race for me and the purpose was to
win the world title and not to win the gold, although that would have been
nice. I can definitely say it is hard to win the Series after the Olympics! The
new blood is definitely here and they’re on fire, it was great to see Leonie on
the podium and Taylor is so strong and has so much talent.”
“I feel like the season is still
getting started!” said Knibb. “Yokohama surprised me and I felt in a really
good place into Tokyo but you saw that race! So these past two have been a bit
of channelled energy, but I’ve just been enjoying racing and trying to do so to
the best of my abilities. On lap three or four I thought ‘maybe I have a flat’
but no, it was my legs… but I saw I was gaining time each lap and that was
motivating for me, so then I knew I had to just run to the best of my
abilities.”
It was Flora Duffy, Taylor Spivey and
Katie Zaferes all lined up together on the left side of the short beach start
at Hawrelak Lake, the Bermudian soon pulling away from those around her,
Vittoria Lopes (BRA) leading the middle group and WTCS Leeds winner Maya Kingma
clear on the far side as they approached the first buoy.
As the swimmers began to stretch out,
it was Knibb second with Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS) and Vicky Holland (GBR) on
her shoulder, the US trio of Spivey, Zaferes and Kirsten Kasper together, as
were the British threesome of Sophie Coldwell, Sian Rainsley and Beth Potter,
Duffy there too and all within 10 seconds of the Brazilian pace-setter Lopes.
Knibb took up position at the front
on lap two, unaware that she would stay there for the rest of the race, coming
out alongside Kingma into transition and onto the bike. Spivey joined them,
while Duffy’s customary slick transition saw her close enough to give hope of
bridging up to the early leaders.
Knibb was having none of it, however,
making sure to go onto the gas at the first opportunity and make life as hard
as possible for Duffy and the rest of the field to get on her wheel. Spivey and
Kingma couldn’t, and at the end of lap one of eight Knibb already had 34
seconds to Duffy and the now eight-deep chasers, including Van Coevorden and
Periault, Laura Lindemann (GER) and Coldwell.
The Italian duo Verena Steinhauser
and Alice Betto were with Summer Rappaport (USA) and Non Stanford (GBR) 70
seconds off.
Knibb continued to streak away from
the ten chasers and looked so comfortable every time she scythed through the
s-bend out of transition, emerging each time to witness the gap grow and with
more than two minutes to pack two after 20km.
That became two minutes to the first
chase group as she refused to let up the pace and by the time she had racked
her bike and got safely out onto the run, the likes of Duffy, Zaferes and
Spivey suddenly had a massive 2:43 to chase down.
Duffy knew she only needed a top
eight to make the title hers and settled into position at the head of the
chasers, Periault and Kingma on her shoulder, Van Coevorden sat behind Zaferes
a few yards further back.
Periault soon settled into her
now-familiar easy stride as she and the champion-in-waiting became locked into
a battle for the silver, taking only 25 seconds out of Knibb’s buffer on lap
one of four.
At halfway, it was Spivey versus
Kingma versus Coldwell for the third spot on the overall podium, Lindemann and
Zaferes just off their pace, while Periault pulled clear of Duffy on lap three,
90 seconds off the leader.
As first Knibb took the gold and then
Duffy the world title, Kingma and Spivey – nine points between them heading
into the race – were right together in the battle for the final spot on the
Series podium over the final lap as Zaferes built again and moved ahead of
Coldwell and then into fourth.
Spivey would win the last duel on the
course to take third overall ahead of Kingma, Coldwell and Lindemann, Vicky
Holland running her way into 9th and Kirsten Kasper rounding out the top ten.
Taylor Spivey (USA)
“I had some food poisoning so wasn’t
even sure I would start today so to come away with fifth and overall podium
makes me so happy. These girls are so strong and really pushed me out there
today. I was with Taylor Knibb and Maya out of the water and had a feeling she
would attack but I didn’t have that top end power to stay with her and she was
so impressive making that much time on us. I did my best but it wasn’t easy for
me today.”
Leonie Periault (FRA)
“It is all new for me, but this
season is just perfect, to get a first podium is amazing for me. Thank you to
everybody for this!”
For the full results, click here https://triathlon.org/results/result/2021_world_triathlon_grand_final_edmonton?mc_cid=7dbb2ae005&mc_eid=6139649918
Results: Elite Women
1. Taylor
Knibb USA 01:54:47
2. Leonie
Periault FRA 01:55:43
3. Flora
Duffy BER 01:56:11
4. Katie
Zaferes USA 01:56:14
5. Taylor
Spivey USA 01:56:16
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and
transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the
sport to be extraordinary.
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