Corus Great Britain Women at Lausanne
Sunday, 10th September 2006
With British Triathlon's World Championships medal success coming from the Men, Britain's women were somewhat overshadowed following their performances at Lausanne. However there were some very promising performances by the Junior and Under 23 athletes, with the Senior Elite also putting on a good show.
At 16 years of age, Hollie Avil put herself on the map as a great future talent taking 11th in the Junior Girl's race. Facing competitors up to three years older than herself, she made her mark having stayed with the leading packs on both the swim and bike legs. The Northampton athlete was evidently pleased with her performance knowing that future World Championship trips in the same Junior category to Hamburg, Vancouver and the Gold Coast are all ahead of her.
Vanessa Raw was the pick of the crop in the Women's U23 race, just missing out on the medals in fourth position. Rosie Clarke made it two Brits in the top 10 with a solid sixth place finish. Raw was third out of the water and quickly settled into the lead bike pack before being joined by Clarke. A smooth transition gave her the lead after the second transition as she broke away with two Australians and a New Zealander, however lost ground on the final 5km of the run.
Britain's top finisher in the Senior race was Andrea Whitcombe, who took a hard earned sixth place to add to her fourth place finish from the European Championships. Britain's other competitor in the race, Liz Blatchford, had a superb swim to exit the water in second, but struggled on the run to finish 13th. The fact she was wearing compression socks revealed the shin problems she had faced in recent weeks.
Source: British Triathlon
More info: http://www.britishtriathlon.org/news/article.php?id=8608