This weekend brought triathlon glory to Mexican athletes at a Pan American Games in Canada, a race-record at a classic 70.3 in California for a 24-year-old red-hot Aussie, and wins by a New Zealander and a competitor from the Czech Republic at a rugged off-road triathlon in Sweden.

Barbara Riveros and Crisanto Grajales win 2015 Pan Am gold in Toronto.

The women’s triathlon produced a whole new Pan American Games podium Saturday as athletes from Chile, Mexico and Bermuda earned first-time medals. Barbara Riveros of Chile ran to her first Pan-Am Games gold medal, followed by Mexico’s Paola Diaz with silver and Bermuda’s Flora Duffy with bronze. The victory also gives Chilean women an automatic qualifying spot for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

For only the second time in six Pan American Games, the U.S. women were shut out of the medals as Chelsea Burns finished 5th, defending gold medalist Sarah Haskins 8th and Erin Jones 19th.

Mexico secured a spot in the men’s triathlon at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio as Crisanto Grajales won a nerve-wracking finish line sprint by one second over U.S. competitor Kevin McDowell Sunday. Signaling a leap forward for Mexico in international triathlon, Grajales’ countryman Irving Perez took bronze, six seconds behind McDowell and fellow Mexican Paola, and combined with Diaz’s silver in the women's race gave Mexico the top triathlon medal count of the weekend.

Women

Halfway through the two-lap 1500-meter swim, Duffy, Haskins and Pamela Oliveira of Brazil broke out front and exited the water with a 90 seconds lead. While Duffy and Oliveira raced ahead on the bike course, Haskins, who was serving as a domestíque for her teammates as she did for Gwen Jorgenson at the WTS Grand Final last year, waited for Chelsea Burns and Erin Jones.

For two laps, Duffy and Oliveira maintained a one minute lead on a chase pack of 15. By Lap 4, the chasers caught up and created a lead pack of 17 that included Riveros, Diaz, Burns, Haskins, Puerto Rico’s Melissa Rios and Canadians Paula Findlay, Ellen Pennock and Joanna Brown.

All 17 hit T2 together, and as they started the run, Riveros seized the lead. Her race-best 35:20 run split brought her to the finish in 1:57:18 with a 30 seconds margin on Diaz and 38 seconds on bronze medalist Duffy. Elizabeth Bravo of Ecuador took 4th, 47 seconds back of the winner, and Chelsea Burns of the U.S. took 5th, 16 seconds back of Bravo.

“I think Sarah (Haskins) did an incredible job making sure I got off the bike with the leaders,” said Burns. “I was definitely running with a chance to be on the podium and I tried to keep in contact with Barbara (Riveros) and the Mexican girls (Paola Diaz) and hold on as long as I could.”

Men

While Irving Perez and Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk led the swim, Eric Lagerstrom of the U.S. and Martin Bedirian of Argentina moved to the front on the first lap of the bike leg. That small break did not hold and another minor breakaway attempt by five men, including Pan Am Games defending champion Reinaldo Colucci of Brazil, also sputtered out and died as the race devolved into a 25-man pack heading into T2.

As McDowell recalled, “Lagerstrom saved me on the bike. It was a tough swim and out on the bike I wasn’t feeling too great. He was waiting for me and I tagged on and got into the group. I would not have that performance today without Eric Lagerstrom.”

On the run, Jason Wilson of Barbados broke out fast and led the first 3 of 4 laps on the run, followed by Andrew Yorke of Canada. On the last lap, Grajales, Perez, McDowell and Gonzalo Raul Tellechea of Argentina stormed past. After dropping Perez and Tellechea, McDowell and Grajales sped toward the blue carpet. At the end, Grajales ran a race-best 30:58 10k split and finished in 1:48:58 with a one second margin over McDowell and 7 seconds ahead of Perez.

Pan American Games Triathlon
Toronto, Canada
July 11-12, 2015
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Women

1. Barbara Riveros (CHL) 1:57:18
2. Paola Diaz (MEX) 1:57:48
3. Flora Duffy (BER) 1:57:56
4. Elizabeth Bravo (ECU) 1:58:13
5. Chelsea Burns (USA) 1:58:29
6. Ellen Pennock (CAN) 1:58:42
8. Sarah Haskins (USA) 1:58:59
9. Paula Findlay (CAN) 1:59:55
19. Erin Jones (USA) 2:05:52

Men

1. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 1:48:58
2. Kevin McDowell (USA) 1:48:59
3. Irving Perez (MEX) 1:49:05
4. Gonzalo Raul Tellechea (ARG) 1:49:12
5. Jason Wilson (BAR) 1:49:19
7. Andrew Yorke (CAN) 1:49:31
8. Hunter Kemper (USA) 1:49:37
17. Eric Lagerstrom (USA) 1:50:51
DNF Manuel Huerta (PUR), Kyle Jones (CAN)

Sam Osborne and Helena Erbenova win XTERRA Sweden Championship

Sam Osborne of New Zealand and Helena Erbenova of the Czech Republic prevailed at the second annual XTERRA Sweden Championship. This clash at Hellasgaarden sported one of the closest finishes on the XTERRA European Tour this season as the top three men finished within 24 seconds and Erbenova’s margin of victory was a relatively close 1:21.

Women

XTERRA European Tour leader Brigitta Poor of Hungary led the swim in 22:34, which gave her a 1:39 lead on Carina Wasle of Austria and 2:34 on Erbenova. On a slick, muddy course with sharp hills and many technical sections, Erbenova’s mountain bike handling skills made quick work of Wasle’s and Poor’s leads. Erbenova posted a women's-best ride split of 1:35:44, giving her a 2:30 lead on Wasle and 6 minutes on Poor. But in addition to her talents, Erbenova owed her victory to an age group Good Samaritan. “I have to thank #255,” said Erbenova. “My back wheel fell off out on the trails and this man stopped and fixed it for me.”

Wasle made back 1:11 with a women's-best 52:42 run, but the Austrian fell 1:21 short of overtaking Erbenova’s 2:56:20 finish time. Poor ran 59:28 to finish 3rd in 3:07:50.

Men

New Zealand pro Sam Osborne led the swim in 19:35, which gave him a 1:12 lead on Jan Pyott of Switzerland and Lars Fricke of Germany and 2:31 on recent XTERRA European Tour winner Belgian Kris Coddens. While Osborne led to the finish, there was a battle taking place behind him between Coddens, Pyott and Jonas Djurback of Sweden.

Early on the bike, Pyott passed Djurback, then Coddens passed them both. Coddens then got a flat and fixed it, but dropped back to 4th. In a muddy section, Pyott struggled, Djurback held a steady pace, and mountain bike ace Coddens passed both to arrive in T2 in 2nd place.

By the finish, Pyott’s race-best 46:44 run only brought him 3rd, 8 seconds behind Coddens, who held off Pyott and ran a 2nd-best 47:13 split. Osborne’s 3rd-best 48:03 run was just enough to finish in 2:31:45 with a 16 seconds margin of victory.

XTERRA Sweden
Hellasgaarden, Sweden
July 11, 2015

Results

Men

1. Sam Osborne (NZL) 2:31:45
2. Kris Coddens (BEL) 2:32:01
3. Jan Pyott (SUI) 2:32:09
4. Lars Erik Fricke (GER) 2:38:23
5. Jan Kubicek (CZE)2:42:26

Women

1. Helena Erbenova (CZE) 2:56:20
2. Carina Wasle AUT) 2:57:41
3. Brigitta Poor (HUN) 3:07:50
4. Hanneke Boon (NED) 3:21:50
5. Cecilia Jessen (SWE ) 3:24:11

Sam Appleton of Australia and Meredith Kessler of the U.S. win Vineman 70.3

Australian Sam Appleton set a race record pace and out-dueled legendary Craig Alexander by 2 minutes 18 seconds to take his fifth straight win of 2015. After a race-long duel with Canadian Magali Tisseyre, Meredith Kessler secured her 4th straight Vineman 70.3 victory by a 1 minute 11 seconds margin.

Men

Jake Montgomery of Australia led the swim in 22:42 followed closely by Appleton, Timothy O’Donnell and Ben Collins of the U.S., Mark Bowstead of New Zealand, Kevin Collington of the U.S., Craig Alexander, and Matt Reed and TJ Tollakson of the U.S. – all within 11 seconds.

Whereupon Appleton unleashed a race-best 2:03:17 bike split which gave him a 1:50 lead on Alexander (3rd-fastest 2:05:13 bike split), a few more seconds on O’Donnell and Collington, and another minute on Bowstead and Tollakson (2nd-fastest 2:05:11 bike split).

While Alexander pushed hard, the 40-plus master could not chip away at the 24-year-old rising star’s lead. Appleton finished with a race-best 1:13:40 run that brought him to the finish in 3:43:06 with a 2:18 margin over Alexander, who ran 1:13:43. Kevin Collington outran fellow U.S. competitor Timothy O’Donnell 1:15:28 to 1:17:40 to take 3rd to O’Donnell’s 4th place.

Women

Lauren Brandon led the women’s swim and her 23:03 split bested Kessler by 63 seconds. Emily Cocks of the U.S. and Leanda Cave and Holly Lawrence of Great Britain followed closely behind Kessler. Dangerous cyclist and runner Magali Tisseyre of Canada was another 1:39 behind the chasers and 3-time Ironman World Champion Mirinda Carfrae lagged 1:21 further back.

After a women's second-fastest 2:20:07 bike split, Tisseyre whittled her deficit to Kessler and Holly Lawrence (women’s-best 2:19:31 bike split) to 20 seconds and arrived at T2 tied with Brandon. Cave had troubles on the bike and withdrew after a 2:34:58 split.

Just two miles into the run, Lawrence complained of an injury and dropped out. By 4.25 miles, Kessler led Tisseyre by 2:10. Fleet-footed Carfrae, on her way to a women's best 1:21:54 run split, took over 3rd, 7 minutes down, at the 10 mile mark.

By the finish, Kessler’s 3rd-best 1:24:28 run held off Tisseyre’s 2nd-fastest 1:23:26 run by 71 seconds for the victory. Carfrae took the final spot on the podium, 6:35 arrears.

Ironman 70.3 Vineman
Windsor, California
July 12, 2015
S 1.2 k / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Sam Appleton (AUS) 3:43:06 * race record
2. Craig Alexander (AUS) 3:45:24
3. Kevin Collington (USA) 3:47:18
4. Timothy O’Donnell (USA) 3:49:16
5. Ben Collins (USA) 3:49:51

Women

1. Meredith Kessler (USA) 4:11:58
2. Magali Tisseyre (CAN) 4:13:09
3. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) 4:18:33
4. Emily Cocks (USA) 4:23:54
5. Laura Siddall (GBR) 4:26:41