After an epic, back-and-forth duel on the run, Mario Mola bested fellow Spaniard Javier Gomez at the finish to win the day’s Grand Final crown. But with championship consistency, Gomez won the season’s World Triathlon Series points chase and thus broke his career tie with Simon Lessing by earning a 5th ITU Olympic distance World Championship.
Mola, historically a slow swimmer, surprised himself by emerging from the swim in 11th place, just 15 seconds behind swim leader Richard Varga and 3 seconds ahead of Gomez. After executing an energy-saving front pack bike leg, Mola and countryman Gomez ran away from the field and left the decisive moment to the final 400 meters. Mola crossed the line in 1:44:53, 4 seconds ahead of Gomez and 42 seconds ahead of 3rd-place Richard Murray of South Africa.
With just four lesser contenders arriving at T2 35 seconds ahead of a chase pack of 56 men, the race turned into a high-octane two-man 10k duel where Mola prevailed with a blazing fast 28:59 split - the fastest in ITU history according to a @WorldTriathlon tweet. Gomez, who traded surges with Mola at least half a dozen times as the sun sank in the horizon, finally surrendered with 400 meters to go and closed with a 29:05 run. Murray, who started his day with a 1-minute deficit after the swim, advanced from 22nd starting the run to the final spot on the podium with a 3rd-best 29:30 run.
“I can’t understand it yet,” said Gomez of his third-straight WTS World title. “I sometimes can’t comprehend doing something like that in the last few years. It is just amazing. Today I felt really good in the race, but I just couldn’t beat Mario – he was too strong.”
Mola was elated for his win - and for his countryman’s unprecedented 5th ITU World title. “I think I have just done one of the best races in my life,” said Mola. “The feeling is amazing. Just to be able to run with Javi at the end - I hope people enjoyed that as much as we did. It was an unbelievable race.”
With this runner-up finish today, Gomez led the WTS season long standings with a total of 4930 points, 135 points ahead of Mola, 508 ahead of Vincent Luis of France, 613 ahead of Murray, and 1156 ahead of WTS series 5th place finisher Fernando Alarza of Spain.
Gomez is well on his way to establishing the greatest competitive resume in triathlon history. He has won the ITU Olympic distance World Championship in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015. He has posted three ITU Olympic distance World Championship silver medals – in 2007, 2009 and 2012. He has won 11 World Triathlon Series victories and 14 World Cup wins. He was 4th at the 2008 Olympic Triathlon and took a silver medal at the London Olympic Triathlon. He won the XTERRA World Championship in 2012 and at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship earned gold in 2014 and bronze in 2015. And, in the unofficial Olympic distance non-drafting world championship, he twice won big first place checks at Hy-Vee.
Swim
Richard Varga of Slovakia led the Lake Michigan swim in 16:18, 8 seconds ahead of Australian Aaron Royle and 9 seconds ahead of Igor Polyanskiy of Russia. Of the key contenders, Jonathan Brownlee was 5th, 11 seconds down, Vincent Luis of France was 8th, 12 seconds back, Mola was a surprisingly close 11th, 15 seconds arrears, Gomez was 16th, 18 seconds back, Crisanto Grajales of Mexico was 26th, 23 seconds back, and Murray, as usual, was near the caboose, in 55th place, 57 seconds down.
Bike leg
While the multiple out-and-backs with 180-degree corners demanded bike handling skills, the flat terrain did not allow much in the way of breakaways. From the start, the front pack was huge with a 17-seconds spread from leader Aaron Royle to 36th place Joe Maloy of the U.S.
All the top contenders could cruise in the lead pack save Murray, who was 57 seconds back in 44th place after the first lap. Several brave souls made surges that failed until Ben Kanute of the U.S., Reinaldo Colucci of Brazil, Andrea Salvisberg of Switzerland, and Marco Van Der Stel of Netherlands succeeded in creating a 35 seconds gap on the field on the final lap.
Critically, Richard Murray managed to join an aggressive chase pack and erase most of his deficit with a 22nd-place bike finish, 39 seconds back of the leaders and just 3 seconds back of leaders of the chase pack including Vincent Luis, Gomez, Royle, Brownlee, and Mola.
Run
While Kanute hung on to the lead bravely, Mola and Gomez eased past the American a few meters from the end of lap 1, running at a sizzling 2:47 per kilometer pace. Kanute, chasing the dream of a top 8 finish and a U.S. Olympic triathlon start, eventually struggled home an honorable 20th.
Behind the two leading Spaniards, Murray, Luis, Royle, Brownlee, and Joao Pereira of Portugal took up the battle for the bronze. After 5k, Murray finally separated himself from Luis, but Crisanto Grajales of Mexico, the most recent Pan Am Games champion, was quickly running from 36th at T2 to 15th after Lap 1, 9th after Lap 2 and finally settled into a glorious 4th place at the finish after a fine 29:42 split.
ITU World Championship Grand Final
Chicago, Illinois
September 19, 2015
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k
Results
Elite Men
1. Mario Mola (ESP) 1:44:53
2. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:44:57
3. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:45:35
4. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 1:45:40
5. Vincent Luis (FRA) 1:45:44
6. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 1:45:52
7. Aaron Royle (AUS) 1:46:03
8. Jelle Geens (BEL) 1:46:10
9. Joao Pereira (POR) 1:46:10
10. Ryan Bailie (AUS) 1:46:33
12. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 1:46:19
20. Ben Kanute (USA) 1:46:42
32. Kevin McDowell (USA) 1:47:32
40. Sean Jefferson (USA) 1:47:55
54. Joe Maloy (USA) 1:50:33
