Juniors Show World Class Potential
Wednesday, 2nd August 2006
Before the Elite races got underway, Salford played host to one of the ETU Junior Cup Races over the sprint distance.
The boy's race started with strong swims from Devon King, Olly Stanley and Johnny Brownlee, who quickly set about on the bike with the intention to pull away their peloton from the chasing pack. Ritchie Nicholls lead the second group of cyclists with grit and determination after a poor swim. As he came past the grandstand after the first lap he bellowed for the other riders to help him out in bridging the gap to the leaders who were out of sight.
Phil Graves did a lot of the work at the front of the bike as the young British elite shared the work load to gain maximum advantage before the run. Coming out of final transition it was Johnny Brownlee and Devon King who looked the most spritely with Rob Bowles and Graves in contention. Ritchie Nicholls stormed off the second pack with the leaders well clear but began to immediately eat into their advantage.
A shocked crowd couldn't believe it when Nicholls appeared first over the bridge and over the finish line to take a magnificent victory having worked himself up from the mid-field. Johnny Brownlee booked second place with a customary Brownlee family strong run with Devon King, who had been ill earlier in the week, taking a well deserved third place with Bowles just behind in fourth.
On the female side of things the swim marked the story of the race with both Abbie Thorrington and Hollie Avil establishing their dominance on the field. As they worked together on the bike stage, a chasing pack including Jessica Towl tried hard to work up to them. As Avil and Thorrington continued to circle the course one of the coaches shouted some splits as the rode past. Thorrington turned to look at where the noise had come from and swerved, clipped Avils' wheel and sent herself towards the tarmac. Avil stayed upright and comfortably won following a clean tranistion whilst Thorrington got back on her bike and entered transition with the pack.
As Hollie Avil stormed away to victory the Brits battled it out behind, along with Mazetti of Italy. Thorrington pulled up on the run with an injury sustained during the crash whilst the Italien pulled away from Towl and Mary Ferrier. Avil took the applause from the crowd with a comfortable win, perhaps slightly marred by the incident with Thorrington, with Mazetti second, Ferrier in third and Towl just off the podium with fourth.
Source: British Triathlon
More info:http://www.britishtriathlon.org/news