Snowsill wins women's title
By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer
After some time away, Emma Snowsill of Australia returned to championship form without missing a step.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Behind a strong run, she won the JAL International Triathlon Union World Cup race in Honolulu yesterday in her first World Cup event since 2003.
Australia's Emma Snowsill, in her first world cup event since 2003, ran away with the women's race, winning in a record 2:04:39.
She finished the 1.5-kilometer (0.93-mile) swim, 40K (24.8-mile) bike and 10K (6.2-mile) run in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 39 seconds, breaking the previous record by 2 minutes, 42 seconds, set by American Barbara Lindquist in last year's inaugural event.
Snowsill beat out a field of 33 elite female athletes, including Austrian Kate Allen, the 2004 Athens Olympics gold medalist, Australian Loretta Harrop, the silver medalist, and Susan Williams, an American, who won bronze.
She led an Australian contingent that swept the top three spots, followed by Harrop in 2:06:36 and Annabel Luxford in 2:06:38, in the event that was in and around Waikiki and Diamond Head.
"I think it's always unexpected," said Snowsill, 23. "You always go in having no expectations.
"You never know how everyone's form is going. It's kind of nice, in a way, just going in and just going out and doing your best."
Snowsill, who won her last event, the 2003 World Championships, before taking time off due to an injury, won $8,000 and earned points toward her world ranking, which determines if she can compete in the World Championships in Japan later this year.
Yesterday's World Cup race, in which athletes earn their points, was one of 12 events in 2005, and was the first of the season and only one in the United States this year.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
She trailed Harrop by 29 seconds out of the swim portion and 37 seconds after the bike, but it was her run, a race-low 34:02, that handed her the win. She caught Harrop during the first of four loops along Kalakaua Avenue.
Barbara Lindquist, left, who held the previous women's race record, and Susan Williams, an Athens Olympian, congratulate each other.
Snowsill said it helped to have a target like Harrop to chase after.
"I still had something left in the tank to keep going," she said.
Harrop, who was the leader after the first two events, said she took some time off after the Olympics, and hadn't started her training for her running.
"I'm coming back from an injury and I've been working on my swim and bike, so I'm happy with it," Harrop said.
Lindquist was the first American finisher, in 2:08:27, and automatically qualified for the World Championships. She qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics after last year's win here.
"I'm not as in peak condition as I was last year, because it's not as important of a race to me," said Lindquist, who said she was retiring after this year and called it her "winding-down" year. "It was good to come back and race on a course I have so many fond memories of from last year."
Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.
