Canada's Emily Miazga conquered a world-class field and tough conditions to win her third multisport world title at the Speight's Coast to Coast today.
In a race billed as the best female field ever, the West Coast-based Canuck held off attack after attack to win the 243k race across New Zealand's South Island to eventually triumph by a comfortable nine minutes. But the end result didn't do justice to the race within.
On the West Coast's Kumara Beach start line, Miazga faced 2007 world champion Fleur Pawsey (ChCh) and four-time world champion Jill Westenra (Wgtn, 2000-2003) and a former world championship runner Elina Ussher (Nelson). But the entire field also faced tough conditions with low river levels and a headwind the entire way.
As expected the race started aggressively on the opening 55k cycle with only Miazga and Westenra managing to make it into the front bunch with the top 20 men. This factored heavily later in the race with Fleur Pawsey, Elina Ussher and Nelson's Fleur Lattimore pushing themselves to the edge to get back in contention during the 33k mountain run over Goat Pass on the Northern tip of the Southern Alps.
It was Fleur Pawsey who Miazga beat by just 43secs in last year's world title race at the Speight's Coast to Coast, and it was Pawsey who emerged as the biggest challenge during the run. Pawsey joined Miazga and Westenra shortly before halfway in the gruelling run and wasted no time in upping the tempo. Miazga responded and the two exited the run 5min ahead of Ussher, Lattimore and Westenra.
Ussher, wife of three time world champion Richard Ussher, had battled bad cramps early in the run because of the cold river crossings but recovered to feature strongly in the kayak. Likewise Westenra, and these four closed on Miazga, with Ussher actually taking the lead after Miazga took a wrong line through the shallow braids of the upper Waimakariri River.
"I just went the wrong way," she shrugged on the finish line after winning in 13hrs 39min 33secs, but only after strong challenges from both Ussher and Westenra on the final 70k cycle to the Sumner Beach finish line in Christchurch.
Miazga clawed back to the lead during the kayak while Westenra closed on both of them, and as they started the ride only three minutes separated the three. Westenra struck first, passing Ussher in the first 20k and then charging after Miazga. By 35k she had closed to two minutes and her fearsome cycling reputation looked set to see her through to the lead.
Westenra last raced the Speight's Coast to Coast in 2004 and returned this year intrigued by the increasing depth in female multisport. At 44 she could have become the oldest winner among men or women to win the world title One Day race. But it wasn't to be.
With 30k to ride Miazga found something extra in the tank and slowly but surely the gap started opening up again.
"I was just thinking that I didn't want Jill to do to me what I did to Fleur last year," said Miazga. "I couldn't let her get close enough to win in the last kilometre."
In the end she needn't have worried. As Miazga pushed harder Westenra started to tire and with 10k she finally knew she had it won.
"Man, that was by far the hardest race," she said of her third world title at the Speight's Coast to Coast. "I spent the whole day defending attack after attack. First Jill really attacked the first ride, then Fleur (Pawsey) attacked the run, and then Elina came through on the kayak, and then Jill attacked again on the last cycle. It was just so tough all the way.
The torrid racing took its toll, however, with her challengers all wilting in some fashion toward the finish. Westenra was nine minutes adrift, while Ussher came in almost 25min later in 13hrs 54min 19secs and Pawsey almost another 20min further.
Walker Strolls to Second Win
The men's race couldn't have contrasted more to the torrid women's competition, but Gordon's Walker's convincing win was no less impressive.
The 2007 world title winner was always the odds-on favourite, and even more so in the absence of three-time world champion Richard Ussher. But Walker illustrated his world class with tactics that at times teased and played with the strong field.
Germany's Marcel Hagener, Christchurch's Luke Vaughan, Wanaka's Gordon Blythen and Foxton's Dougal Allen were tipped to keep the 31 year old Aucklander honest. But it was a handful of lesser-knowns that chased the champion.
Timaru's Carl Bevins was the first, exiting the run 100m ahead of Walker only to have the favourite totally outclass him in the kayak. Vaughan was always close, but not close enough as unknown Nelsonians Trevor Voyce and Luke Chapman came through to surprise even themselves.
But none of this had any impact on Walker. The Aucklander started the final 70k cycle 15min clear of Chapman and eventually won by a massive 31min in 11 hours 49min 26secs.
"Everything just went so well today," said Walker. "I had a plan and it worked almost perfectly. But it was hard. I think the conditions were probably the hardest I've faced in seven years racing this event."
Behind Walker, Trevor Voyce caught a lucky break when his training partner Chapman took a wrong turn on the ride through Christchurch to Sumner. "I thought the cop said turn, so I turned. But I should have known where I was going and Trevor was going well and came through. I chased him all the way to the finish," he said after finishing just 90secs behind his friend in 12hrs 22min 11secs.
Two Day Race Concludes
While the One Day World Championship was high on Goat Pass, the Two Race was concluding at Sumner Beach, with the highlight being the father and son pairing of Daniel and Neil Jones from Whakatane maintaining their lead in the team race to win in 11hrs 40min 11secs.
The women's teams race panned out the same with Christchurch pair Millie Stocker and Rosie Shakespeare winning by a massive 36mins in 13hrs 39min 29secs.
The Two Day Individuals honours couldn't have been more different with Day One's leaders losing out to strong kayakers. Among men Christchurch's Robert Loveridge came past both Whakatane's Sam Clark and Wellington's Dougal Thorburn, the Day One leader, to win by 7min in 12hrs 17min 23secs.
In the women's Two Day individual race Scottish running specialist Kim Threadgall, the overnight leader, fell out of the top 10 in a tight tussle that saw Cromwell's Chantel Knox claim the win just 37secs ahead of Roxburgh neighbour Kath Kelly.
Seven hundred and ninety eight athletes from 14 countries started this year's 27th Speight's Coast to Coast, among them a record 26 percent women.
