Michelle Dillon and Tim Don victorious at World's Largest Triathlon
Tuesday, 7th August 2007
Britain's Michelle Dillon and Tim Don emerged victorious from the weekend's Michelob ULTRA London Triathlon, held at the ExCel Centre in London's Docklands.
The women's race saw a morning of exciting action as Australia's Annabell Luxford pushed the pace throughout. She exited the bike some thirty seconds ahead of the chasing Andrea Whitcombe and Dillon, but was swiftly caught by both of them. Dillon came from 90 seconds down after the swim to the front of the chase bike pack, from which she started her attack of the 10km run. By the 5km mark she had established a comfortable lead over both Whitcombe and Luxford, and she maintained her advantage to emerge as the deserved winner. Whitcombe held off Luxford for second whilst Jodie Swallow finished fourth.
Ben Sanson of France, a former World Championship swimmer, exited the water some 25 seconds ahead of his nearest rivals, ending Richard Stannard's ten year consecutive winning streak of being first in the swim. However Sanson was soon caught by the chasing pack of Tim Don, Stuart Hayes, Harry Wiltshire, Dann Brook and Matt Reed from the USA, who continued a high pace to take a 2:45 advantage onto the run.
Despite Hayes' best efforts to keep up with Don, he was dropped at the 6km mark as the World Champion ran away to victory. Further back down the field, Reed managed to stay ahead of Wiltshire, whilst last year's winner, Hendrik De Villiers from South Africa ran his way into fifth. Dann Brook was top Under 23 in sixth ahead of Sanson and the chasing Bevan Docherty from New Zealand.
| Elite Women | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Country | Time |
| 1 | Michelle Dillon | GBR | 01:55:29 |
| 2 | Andrea Whitcombe | GBR | 01:56:05 |
| 3 | Annabell Luxford | AUS | 01:56:20 |
| 4 | Jodie Swallow | GBR | 01:58:34 |
| 5 | Leanda Cave | GBR | 01:59:45 |
| Elite Men | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Country | Time |
| 1 | Tim Don | GBR | 01:42:01 |
| 2 | Stuart Hayes | GBR | 01:42:19 |
| 3 | Matt Reed | USA | 01:44:29 |
| 4 | Harry Wiltshire | GBR | 01:44:54 |
| 5 | Hendrik De Villiers | RSE | 01:45:07 |
The London Triathlon regained its status as the World's largest triathlon from Chicago as over 9,100 people finished the weekend's races over a mix of super sprint, sprint, standard distance and relays.
In glorious weather many more thousands of people lined the streets of the course to cheer on family, friends and club mates; and many also visited the Triathlon Expo within the ExCel Centre.
Nick Rusling, the Managing Director of the London Triathlon said:
"Every year we aim to take steps forward, and moving into our 11th year we have continued to build on the strengths we found last year. The elite field was top notch, and with all the support from celebrities and the other keen triathletes, we are not only creating a massive event for London in the run up to the Olympics, but also raising a huge amount for charity, with this years' total expected to exceed £2 million."
Source: British Triathlon
More info: www.http://triathlonresults.co.uk/index.html