Beijing Olympic men’s triathlon champion Jan Frodeno had been running well in 2009 but scored mediocre finishes in the new World Championship Series until he dominated the seventh round at Yokohama Sunday.
Frodeno, who took a last lap duel for gold with Simon Whitfield, Bevan Docherty and Javier Gomez at Beijing, ran away from Kris Gemmell and Javier Gomez today in a last lap surge at Yokohama that gave him an 18 second margin of victory over New Zealander Gemmell, who outsprinted Gomez, the 2008 ITU World Champion from Spain, by three seconds.
Frodeno, fellow German Maik Petzold and Australian Courtney Atkinson made a bold breakaway on the bike which gave the trio a 42-second lead over a pack of 21 riders at T2. But of the three, only Frodeno had the firepower left to run a 31:01 and hold off the chasers to finish in 1:44:31.
Gomez, who recovered bravely from a skin-scraping bike crash at London last week, ran a race-best 30:32 final 10k, but fell short of Gemmell’s last lap surge by three seconds and had to settle for third.
“After Hamburg I was really disappointed and I went back to the drawing board to refocus," Frodeno told ITU media.
“Today was awesome. Thanks to the boys, Atko [Courtney Atkinson] and Maik [Petzold]. If they hadn’t gone on the bike you never know what would have happened."
Gemmell said he asked Gomez if he was ready for a sprint? "He said ‘no, not really’, and I said ‘yeah, me neither’,” said Gemmell. "What a great day for Frodeno, anyone who races like that deserves to win."
Gomez told ITU media that recovering from his London crash was tough. “It was an uncomfortable and complicated week with the long trip from London and with the crash last weekend it meant I couldn’t sleep and train well so the podium is good but it was not a good day for me,” said Gomez.
Laurent Vidal of France, ran a third-best 30:54 10k to close in 4th, while Bevan Docherty of New Zealand, slowly but surely regaining his early season winning form, ran 31:26 to take 5th.
The U.S.’s Jarrod Shoemaker, recovering nicely from a DNF at London, ran 31:33 and took 6th, 10 seconds back of Docherty.
After their heroics on the bike, Atkinson faded with a 32:37 run to 8th, while Petzold was even more tapped out, finishing with a 33:04 run for 10th.
Going into the Dextro Energy World Championship Series grand final on Australia’s Gold Coast in three weeks, Great Britain’s sensational 21-year-old Alistair Brownlee holds a huge advantage with his perfect score of 3200 points for his four wins at Madrid, Washington DC, Hamburg and London.
Next is Javier Gomez with 2850 points for his two 2nds at Washington DC and Kitzbuhel, and 3rds at Madrid and Yokohama. With his runner-up finish at Yokohama, Gemmell leapfrogged into third with 2569 points. Maik Petzold stands 4th with 2493, Laurent Vidal 5th with 2405, Steffen Justus of Germany is 6th with 2391, and Shoemaker advanced one place to 7th in the series standings at 2346 points with his 6th place Yokohama finish.
ITU World Championship Series – Round Seven
Yokohama, Japan
August 22, 2009
S 1.5k/ B 40k/ R 10k
Results
Elite Men
1. Jan Frodeno (GER) 1:44:31
2. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 1:44:49
3. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:44:52
4. Laurent Vidal (FRA) 1:45:03
5. Bevan Docherty (NZL) 1:45:39
6. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1:45:49
7. Yulian Malyshev (RUS) 1:45:51
8. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:46:07
9. Dan Wilson (AUS) 1:46:18
10. Maik Petzold (GER) 1:46:35
