By a long way her worst swim of the season cost New Zealand triathlete Andrea Hewitt any shot at the world title at the final round of the ITU Dextro Energy World Championships Series in Budapest this morning, with the Kiwi coming home in 22nd place to drop to 6th in the overall standings.
The tight and technical race was dominated by the Australians with Olympic champion Emma Snowsill making up for a disappointing season with a resounding victory on the day, but it was fellow Aussie Emma Moffatt who raced sensibly for second place on the day and with it the overall world title ahead of Nicola Spirig (SUI) with Lisa Norden (SWE) in third overall.
Second going into the final round and just 52 points behind Emma Moffatt (AUS), Hewitt lost contact with her major rivals in the 1500m swim and had to ride in a small chase group along with fellow Kiwi Nicky Samuels for the entire 40km bike ride. The Kiwi slowly but surely lost time to the large lead group but just as telling, the effort took vital energy from her running legs as she headed out on to the 10km run almost two minutes behind the lead group of 38 competitors.
Despite running strongly and overtaking almost 20 competitors to come home in 21st, it was a disappointing day for the diminutive Christchurch based athlete – or more to the point a disappointing swim that cost her any chance of a world title to go with her third place in the championship last season.
Best of the Kiwis on the day was a superb 12th place finish for one of the sports least experienced competitors in Kate McIlroy (Wellington) while Debbie Tanner raced consistently throughout in one of her better performances of the year to come home 16th, while Nicky Samuels couldn’t make up ground during the run and finished 37th.
ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship Series
Grand Finale, Budapest
Elite Women
1 Emma Snowsill AUS 1:49:43
2 Emma Moffatt AUS 1:51:25
3 Nicola Spirig SUI 1:51:28
4 Lisa Norden SWE 1:51:28
5 Paula Findlay CAN 1:51:30
Plus Kiwis
12 Kate McIlroy NZL 1:52:19
16 Debbie Tanner NZL 1:52:41
22 Andrea Hewitt NZL 1:53:11
37 Nicky Samuels NZL 1:54:54
ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship
2010 Rankings
Elite Women
Gold Emma Moffatt AUS
Silver Nicola Spirig SUI
Bronze Lisa Norden SWE
Plus Kiwis
6 Andrea Hewitt Christchurch
16 Debbie Tanner Auckland
22 Kate McIlroy Wellington
35 Nicky Samuels Wanaka
77 Teresa Adam Auckland
114 Rebecca Kingsford Tirau
