Samantha Warriner Wins Salford 2006
Sunday, 30th July 2006
On the women's side of things, the race was dominated from the run by Samantha Warriner of New Zealand who battled hard to maintain her position in the lead packs on both swim and bike legs.
Anneliese Heard took the Prime with a good swim, earning herself a cool $500 before Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand took order as the lead group of nine headed into Transition One. Three Brits made the pack, Heard, Julie Dibens and Liz Blatchford. Unfortunately the up-and-coming talent, Vanessa Raw, failed to bridge the gap and settled into the chasing group after an encouragingly strong swim.
As the lead group worked hard to break away, the chasing athletes relaxed too much and were caught by the third pack to form a large peloton. No one wanted to break away from the front pack and so all of their efforts were funnelled into the run. Transition Two became a disaster zone for the Brits as first Liz Blatchford, and then Vanessa Raw, became entangled in other peoples bikes. Blatchford went to rack her bike, but ran into a lapped cyclist who moved to the inside of her. The resulting collision meant that Blatchford was immediately off the pace as Warriner pushed on and into her stride with the others in hot pursuit.
Warriner looked strong and powerful as she set about breaking down the opposition and quickly ran the legs out of compatriot, Andrea Hewitt. Marianna Ohata of Brazil took advantage of Hewitts tiring body and came past both the Kiwi and former British athlete, now French, Jessica Harrison. Blatchford pushed herself forward as Heard felt the pains of her swim efforts, whilst Andrea Whitcombe and Vanessa Raw made progress from the second pack.
The Salford crowd went wild as Warriner crossed the line to take an impressive victory ahead of Ohata and Hewitt. Harrison took fourth with the first British triathlete, Liz Blatchford finishing in seventh. On their World Cup debut, Vanessa Raw and Vicky Holland took 25th and 49th respectively, and certainly look like being real contenders in years to come. Unfortunately, Rosie Clarke, sister of Will, did not start the race after awaking to back pains on the morning of the race.
| Elite Women | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Country | Time |
| 1 | S Warriner | NZL | 02:04:28 |
| 2 | M Ohata | BRA | +0:24 |
| 3 | A Hewitt | NZL | +0:28 |
| 4 | J Harrison | FRA | +0:50 |
| 5 | J Franzmann | GER | +1:09 |
| 6 | M Di Marco Mess | SUI | +1:13 |
| 7 | L Blatchford | GBR | +1:20 |
| 8 | D Tanner | NZL | +1:49 |
| 9 | V Frintova | CZE | +2:08 |
| 10 | R Lisk | GER | +2:09 |
| 12 | A Whitcombe | GBR | +2:27 |
| 13 | J Dibens | GBR | +2:43 |
| 18 | A Heard | GBR | +3:21 |
| 25 | V Raw | GBR | +3:57 |
| 42 | M Dillon | GBR | +6:31 |
| 49 | V Holland | GBR | +7:54 |
| 52 | K Sindall | GBR | +8:46 |
Source: British Triathlon
More info: http://www.trisalford.info/