 Final burst fells favorites
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-20 08:34
Competing in one of the most grueling events of the Olympics is one thing, beating the world's best triathletes - including the "Tiger Woods" of the triathlon - to claim the top spot is quite another. Yesterday, Germany's Jan Frodeno sprinted down the final leg of the Olympic men's triathlon in the outskirts of Beijing to do just that. Frodeno, 27, passed Canada's 2000 Olympic champion Simon Whitfield with just meters left, to pull off a shock win in 1hr 48min 53sec. Athens silver medalist Bevan Docherty of New Zealand took bronze, while there was heartbreak for hot favorite Javier Gomez, triathlon's "Tiger", who was relegated to fourth. "I think I slept about two hours last night," Frodeno said. "I knew I had trained very well, but these guys who were with me at the front were really the big guys." The triathletes' route included swimming 1.5km, running 10 km and cycling 40km in a scenic area near the Ming Tombs reservoir. The 1.94m Frodeno was nobody's pre-race tip with a relatively modest record, including 13 top-10 World Cup finishes and last year's German national title. But he put on a devastating burst of speed to run down Whitfield and leave Gomez and Docherty trailing. "I just tried to execute my own race. As Simon went I knew it was going to be tough, I just had to bite and fight," Frodeno said. "This year I've lost all my races on sprints. It teaches you a lesson and I've learned at the right time I guess." The four had been neck-and-neck entering the stadium but world champion Gomez faded at the final turn, dashing the Spaniard's hopes of a first Olympic medal. "I gave it all I had and Jan just kept coming," said Whitfield. "What a spectacular performance by him." Docherty described the race, held in temperatures of 28 C, as a "cat and mouse" one.
"I was a little bit nervous with just those four guys there but it depends how much you want it," he said. "These guys really wanted it so much more." The smart money was on Gomez, 25, who has four World Cup victories this season after winning the series for the past two years running. He also won last year's World Cup race on this course. But the expected surge never came as he was tracked all the way by Frodeno, Whitfield and Docherty, and ran out of steam at the last leg. "I didn't get it but sport is like that. It's not mathematics," Gomez said. "I gave it everything I had to give. I tried to charge in the third lap but it wasn't enough. I had nothing more to do." Frodeno wins Germany's first triathlon gold after Stephan Vuckovic's silver behind Whitfield in 2000. "In Sydney I just rolled along and I beat a German, and today he (Jan) got me back so there's a little bit of irony in that," Whitfield said. AFP (China Daily 08/20/2008 page11) |
