Emma Snowsill
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Snowsill out of Grand Final
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 No comments
Olympic and three-time world champion Emma Snowsill was today forced to withdraw from the upcoming Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Grand Final on the Gold Coast, Australia due to her recent hip surgery.Snowsill recently returned home from racing in Europe for medical attention to a labral tear and soft cartilage injury to her hip. Whereas keyhole surgery was successful, it required her to rest the troubled joint before returning to a heavy load of training. Despite being underdone, Snowsill was keen to race, but a weekend meeting with her surgeon convinced her and coach Craig Walton that it was not worth returning too early and causing potential long term damage.
“I am really disappointed that having the opportunity to compete at home in front of family and friends is not going to happen,” Snowsill said. “I have done everything possible I was allowed to in that short time, however, I can only be thankful it happened this year and not last year. I am still excited to witness the first Grand Final of the World Series unfold and will still feel proud to showcase our sport to the local community and the international athletes who are competing.”
Walton said Snowsill is a fierce competitor and extremely frustrated; however, it was always going to be a tall order to get her on the start line for the Grand Final on September 13.
“If Emma continues to push the envelope like she already has and competes with the labrum injury under repair, she would most likely be compromising the joint if she over stresses the area now, which may adversely impact on her longer term run-up to the next Olympics.”Snowsill’s withdrawal means all eyes will be on Emma Moffatt as she attempts to clinch her first world title in a year when, for the first time, the championship is decided over a series of races.
Snowsill current sits 11th in the Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship rankings.
Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU Triathlon World Championship Grand Final
Race 8, Gold Coast, Australia
Elite Men: Saturday, September 12, 3.15pm AEST
Elite Women: Sunday, September 13, 2.45pm AEST -
SUI Team World Champions!
Posted on June 28th, 2009 No comments
Switzerland is on top of the world today after winning the 2009 Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Team World Championships. The young Swiss team showed their speed out kicking many of the sport’s veterans including past and present Olympic and world champions. The four person team consisting of Magali di Marco, Ruedi Wild, Daniela Ryf and Lukas Salvisberg crossed the line first with a winning time of 1 hour 20 minutes and 56 seconds. Only nine seconds ahead of race favourites Australia in second and 35 seconds ahead of Canada in third.Seventeen teams representing ten countries contested the new mixed relay format world championships today. In a bid to gain an additional triathlon competition in the Olympic Games, this was the first staging of the mixed team relay format. The format consists of four athletes, two men and two women, each completing a mini-triathlon of a 250-metre swim, 6.6-kilometre bike and 1.6-kilometre run on their own before tagging their next athlete. Teams must sequence their athletes as woman-man-woman-man. The first team across the finish line is the winner.
After the opening leg where the women stayed relatively close to one another, entering the first exchange it was New Zealand I (NZL I) with Andrea Hewitt and Australia I (AUS I) with Emma Moffatt side by side with a slight gap on the rest of the field. Where Kris Gemmell (NZL I) was first to hit the water, Courtney Atkinson (AUS I) was quick to reel in the Kiwi and exiting the water already had an 11 second gap. Despite having to make it on his own during the bike leg, Atkinson continued to put time on the field averaging close to 50km/hr on the straight sections for the short 6.6-kilometre course. Brent McMahon (CAN I) was the only one to cut into Atkinson’s lead on the run and bring his team into second place ahead of Gemmell.
Olympic Champion Emma Snowsill would take the handoff from Atkinson and increase Australia’s lead through the swim on chasers Kathy Tremblay (CAN I) and Samantha Warriner (NZL I). But the move of the day came from cycling powerhouse Daniela Ryf of Switzerland I, posting the fastest women’s bike split by almost 30 seconds, catching and passing everyone including the slight Aussie after five kilometres, moving herself into first place for the run. By the end of the 1.6 kilometres, however, Snowsill would catch Ryf and they entered the last exchange together handing off to their teammates Brad Kahlefeldt and Lukas Salvisberg. Snowsill and Ryf had done the damage though, opening an insurmountable gap on chasers Tremblay and Sarah Haskins of USA I. Warriner and New Zealand I would drop back to sixth.
“I gave it everything on the bike and it was great to drop Emma [Snowsill], but then she caught me up on the run,” said Ryf. “I told Lukas just to ignore the others and to run his own race; and he was our star today.”
Kahlefeldt and Salvisberg held their lead on the chasers over the short swim and bike sections leaving the top of the podium to be decided amongst them selves. Even though Kahlefeldt remained tucked behind the young Swiss athlete for the entire run, when Salvisberg started his finishing kick 300 metres from the line, the Aussie veteran could not respond leaving team Switzerland to take the honours of top triathlon nation in 2009. Canada’s anchor man Simon Whitfield would hold off USA’s Matt Reed to grab the bronze for team Canada.
“Brad [Kahlefeldt] was playing with me on the bike and run so I decided just to work really hard and keep the pace hard,” commented Salvisberg. “He kept surging but I put my head down and gave it everything; I didn’t know I had such a good sprint!”
Lauren Groves of Canada added:
“That felt a lot harder than yesterday, it was a complete burn up on tired legs. I was at absolute maximum for twenty minutes but it was a lot of fun.”Emma Moffatt of Australia:
“I was really up for today, it’s such an exciting race format and I was really looking forward to it.”Emma Snowsill of Australia:
“Daniela [Ryf] was incredible, but I’m disappointed I couldn’t stay with her on the bike and I feel that might have cost us the race. But all in all we’ve had a great week racing in Washington DC and here in Des Moines and we can go home happy.”2009 Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Team World Championships
4 x [250m swim, 6.6km bike, 1.6km run]
Unofficial Results
Gold – SWITZERLAND I 1:20:56
[Magali di Marco, Ruedi Wild, Daniela Ryf, Lukas Salvisberg]
Silver – AUSTRALIA I 1:21:05 +:09
[Emma Moffatt, Courtney Atkinson, Emma Snowsill, Brad Kahlefeldt]
Bronze – CANADA I 1:21:31 +:35
[Lauren Groves, Brent McMahon, Kathy Tremblay, Simon Whitfield]
4th – USA I 1:21:53 +:57
[Laura Bennett, Jarrod Shoemaker, Sarah Haskins, Matt Reed]
5th – CANADA II 1:22:31 +1:35
[Paula Findlay, Kyle Jones, Marianne Hogan, Andrew McCartney]
6th – NEW ZEALAND I 1:23:03 +2:07
[Andrea Hewitt, Kris Gemmell, Samantha Warriner, Bevan Docherty]
7th – RUSSIA I 1:23:37 +2:41
[Olga Dmitrieva, Ivan Vasiliev, Anastasia Polyanskaya, Artem Parienko]
8th – UKRAINE I 1:23:43 +2:47
[Yuliya Sapunova, Andrey Glouschenko, Olasya Pristayko, Daniil Sapunov]
9th – NEW ZEALAND II 1:24:07 +3:11
[Kate McIlroy, Clark Ellice, Rebecca Spence, Ryan Sissons]
10th – JAPAN I 1:24:38 +3:42
[Mariko Adachi, Ryosuke Yamamoto, Ai Ueda, Yuichi Hosoda]Souce: Triathlon.org
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Emmas win big at Hy-Vee
Posted on June 28th, 2009 No comments
Current points leader Emma Moffatt of Australia continued her dream season with a win today at triathlon’s largest payday in a time of 1 hour 59 minutes and 46 seconds. With over $1million USD in prize money up for grabs this weekend it was the Beijing Olympic bronze medallist who powered her way through the Olympic calibre field to claim the $200,000 first place prize in the Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Elite Cup this morning. In second was the other Aussie Emma, Emma Snowsill, 1 minute 33 seconds behind. And in third, Canada’s Lauren Groves another 12 seconds back.View the gallery here
“Wow, it’s amazing, it hasn’t sunk in at all yet,” commented Moffatt at the finish. “It’s great to put together two great races in six days and to come away with the win, I’m ecstatic. It was good to make the break and get a lead and I was a bit concerned when Andrea [Hewitt] came with me for the first lap. I was just trying to focus on running and not on the money. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, I haven’t given it any thought.”
Sweltering, windy conditions greeted the 50 starters as they dived into Blue Heron Lake this morning. In typical fashion American swim expert Sara McLarty led out of the water, 37 seconds ahead of the group. Her lead would not last long though with an efficient pack led by last week’s Washington D.C. Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship winner Moffatt, New Zealand’s Andrew Hewitt, 2008 world champion Helen Jenkins of Great Britain and the American duo of Sarah Haskins and Laura Bennett having closed the gap in the first three laps of eight.
The surprise was Olympic champion Emma Snowsill who failed to make the first group out of the water and was relegated to the larger chase group for the entire 40 kilometre bike segment. The bike course in West Des Moines is flat and technical with multiple hairpin turns, which favoured the eight woman lead group enabling them to put small amounts of time in the chasers on every lap. Entering second transition, the lead would be 55 seconds.
In a repeat of last weekend’s performance, Moffatt immediately went on the attack early in the run, dropping everyone except for Hewitt. The Kiwi would not last long however, and by the end of the first lap Hewitt was already beginning to fall back leaving Moffatt to cruise to victory and her largest payday ever. Never taking her foot of the gas for a moment Moffatt still posted the fastest run of the day with a 35:35 10-kilometre split.
Second place Snowsill showed her run prowess reeling in the entire lead group, except for Moffatt, with the second fastest run split of the day. After an up and down 2008, Lauren Groves showed her run form keeping within striking distance of Snowsill all day to claim her first major podium.“Two podiums in two weekends is really pleasing, especially from where I’ve been placed after the bike”, said Snowsill. “It’s easier to have your team mate beat you. I think we’ll be having a big party back in Oz when we get home!”
Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Elite Cup
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Elite Women – Official Results
Gold – Emma Moffatt (AUS) 1:59:46
Silver – Emma Snowsill (AUS) 2:01:19 +1:33
Bronze – Lauren Groves (CAN) 2:01:31 +1:45
4th – Magali di Marco (SUI) 2:01:48 +2:02
5th – Liz Blatchford (GBR) 2:02:04 +2:18
6th – Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:02:26 +2:40
7th – Lisa Norden (SWE) 2:02:37 +2:51
8th – Daniela Ryf (SUI) 2:02:59 +3:13
9th – Sarah Haskins (USA) 2:03:26 +3:40
10th – Helen Jenkins (GBR) 2:03:45 +3:59Souce: Triathlon.org
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Update From Brad Kahlefeldt
Posted on June 25th, 2009 No comments
Hey Guys,Just an update from Washington DC World Champs race last Sunday. Was again another breakaway from the small swim group of 5 out of the water. I wasn’t too far off the back of the first group but our bunch was quite big and unable to reel them back. The swim was a classic it was down the main river in DC the ‘Pontiac’. With Logs you had to swim through and everything else you can imagine throw in thereas well..They had 2 mins in T2. Was too much to make up. So ran hard to halfway but was hard to get into the race that far back with Des Moines World Cup 6 days later. Finished 11th and currently holding 2nd in the series.
So that is where I am now Des Moines , somewhere in Iowa. I am looking forward to racing on Saturday (in the World richest race $200 000 for the win). I have the ITU World Team Championships on Sunday. Our team is Emma Snowsill, Emma Moffatt, Courtney Atkinson and me. It is very short and very fast. Both races on www.triathlon.org
Until then,
Sticksy
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Moffatt Wins in Washington
Posted on June 21st, 2009 No comments
Emma Moffatt registered a surprise victory at round three of the Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Series as she outran compatriot and Olympic gold medallist Emma Snowsill for the win. Crossing the line in front of the Capitol Building in 1:59:55, Moffatt’s win takes her to the top of the Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Rankings.
The Australian Olympic bronze medallist put together a textbook race from start to finish, placing highly in the 1500m swim as a small group of women managed to take the initiative to establish an early lead. Snowsill found herself caught between the leaders and the chase pack, before being eventually reeled in by Switzerland’s Daniela Ryf. The hard work of the Swiss athlete eventually took the chasers up to the leaders as the front pack failed to work cohesively enough to maximise their advantage.
Late on the 40km cycle the home crowd were lifted by a breakaway orchestrated by Mary Beth Ellis and Sarah Haskins. The American pair drew out a 35 second advantage heading onto the 10km run, but were quickly caught by the charging Moffatt.Whilst Moffatt pulled out her lead, further back Lisa Norden from Sweden was forced to the sidelines after 2.5km with cramp after moving into third. Snowsill, who hadn’t lost a race since the Beijing World Cup in September 2007, looked to be struggling early on as she tussled with Ryf, whist Haskins looked strong in second.
It wasn’t until the half way point that the Olympic and Commonwealth champion made her move as she started to pull back the gap, but it was too little too late as Moffatt crossed the line with time in hand. Snowsill took second with under23 world champion, Ryf, finding some extra energy in the final ten minutes to overtake Haskins for bronze.
“Washington DC is a spectacular place with the history and monuments. Although I didn’t get a chance to take a look during the race! I’m really happy with how it went today; it’s a hard year and you have to keep smart with your training and racing to be successful,” said Moffatt. “It’s nice to know when you take the run out that hard, and to know you’re not hurting at all, that no one is catching you. It’s a great feeling!”
“I think the ride was really where the push began,” explained Snowsill. “There was even a surge in the swim right off the bat and those girls really pushed the pace to close that gap on the bike. Even then once we were together people were trying to make breakaways so we were all going really hard. It was surprisingly windy out there and we were all just hoping that the clouds didn’t have any rain; thankfully they held off which was really great because that makes for such much faster racing for us.”
“It was a pretty rough swim with the current. I tried a couple of times to get away on the bike but with no luck. The run was fantastic as I managed to stay with Emma [Snowsill] for the first 5km and I am incredibly happy with my race,” said a delighted Ryf. “My finish gives me a lot of confidence. To stay and run with an Olympic Champion is pretty amazing. I knew that I had to do a lot of work to keep with the best girls in the world and today I did.”Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Rankings
After Race Three of Eight
1. Emma Moffatt (AUS) 1818pts
2. Emma Snowsill (AUS) 1540pts
3. Jessica Harrison (FRA) 1525pts
4. Juri Ide (JPN) 1448pts
5. Daniela Ryf (SUI) 1405ptsWashington DC Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Elite Women – Unofficial Results
Gold – Emma Moffatt (AUS) 1:59:55
Silver – Emma Snowsill (AUS) 2:00:20 +0:25
Bronze – Daniela Ryf (SUI) 2:01:01 +1:06
4th – Sarah Haskins (USA) 2:01:18 +1:23
5th – Helen Jenkins (GBR) 2:01:27 +1:32
6th – Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:01:44 +1:49
7th – Jessica Harrison (FRA) 2:02:05 +2:10
8th – Juri Ide (JPN) 2:02:28 +2:33
9th – Sarah Groff (USA) 2:02:52 +2:57
10th – Lauren Groves (CAN) 2:02:59 +3:04Source: Triathlon.org