Under blazing heat and humidity, and facing one of the toughest cycling hills on the ITU World Cup circuit, race-tough New Zealanders Kris Gemmell and Samantha Warriner won the final ITU World Cup of the 2008 season Sunday in Huatulco, Mexico.
Americans Jarrod Shoemaker and Sarah Gross took significant career-best second place finishes. With her finish, Gross capped a rising arc in her career with a top American, 4th place finish in the 2008 ITU World Cup series points chase. Groff held off hard-charging Brit Andrea Whitcombe, whose 35:56 was the women's best run, by 17 seconds.
The hellish 90-plus Fahrenheit temperature and steamy 90 percent humidity, magnified by one of the meanest hills on the ITU circuit, added honor to the victories, slowed the finishing times and decimated the fields. Only 8 of 18 women starters finished, and but 21 of 31 men completed the course.
Gemmell’s finishing time of 2:03:23 was the slowest of the year, roughly 15 minutes slower than the average winning time on the World Cup circuit. Warriner’s 2:14:02 mark the slowest in perhaps a decade. Most of the damage was done on the advertised 40 kilometer bike – with the 1:10:51 by Ethan Brown of the United States the men’s best. Warriner’s 1:16:05 was the women’s best.
Gemmell earned the fourth World Cup victory of his career with a last lap surge at the end of a race long duel with surprisingly tough Jarrod Shoemaker of the United States, who was 9 seconds back at the line.
For the 37-year-old Warriner, the win was her seventh World Cup victory earned by a 43-second margin over surprisingly strong Sarah Groff of the United States. The win finished off Warriner’s year with a bang. After an early World Cup win at Tongyeong, Korea and her finish line sprint edged Aussie Erin Densham for the bronze at the ITU World Championship at Vancouver, Warriner finished a disappointing 16th at the Beijing Olympics. But she closed 3-2-1 with a bronze at Kitzbuhel, a silver at L’Orient, and the gold at Huatulco to definitively outpoint series runner-up Felicity Abram (who was not entered) by 282 to 256.
“This is what I wanted,” said Warriner, who came five points short of second place in last year’s BG World Cup series points race. “This is a fairy tale ending to the year.”
Warriner’s career shows that the speed-burning world of ITU Olympic distance racing isn’t solely a young competitor’s game. She never competed seriously in triathlon as a junior, and her first-ever triathlon in international competition was in the 25-29 age group division at the 2001 ITU World Championship in Edmonton.
Prior to this season, Warriner’s proudest moment came with a second place finish to 2008 Olympic champion and three-time ITU World Champion Emma Snowsill at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Groff’s second place finish in the Huatulco topped her career-best World Cup finishes set this year. Perhaps her top American 4th place finish in the season World Cup series standings will offer her career encouragement after the disappointment of falling a few seconds short of an Olympic slot at the second US Women’s Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa this April.
Groff’s consistent finishes on the 2008 ITU World Cup circuit have marked her as a woman to be watched in 2009. With her career highlight a 5th at the 2007 Edmonton World Cup going into the 2008 season, this year she took a strong 7th at the ITU Worlds in Vancouver, a 9th at Hy-Vee, a 4th at Tiszaujvaros, a 3rd at the US Elite nationals in Portland, another 4th at Lorient, and a rousing first podium in Mexico Sunday.
Sarah Haskins, who withdrew after the swim at Huatulco, was second American and 15th in the final 2008 ITU World Cup series point standings. In that series, Laura Bennett finished 28th, Jillian Peterson (who was 8th in Huatulco) 43rd, Julie Ertel 49th, and Mary Beth Ellis 56th.
As for the men, Jarrod Shoemaker might have proved even more for his young career with his best-ever ITU World Cup finish Sunday.
Despite the big splashes he has made so soon in his career, Shoemaker has been considered by many triathlon experts to be a great runner with a weak swim and marginal strength on the bike. His big breakthroughs came in 2005 – a win at the New York Pan Am Cup in July and an Under 23 World Championship at Gamagori Japan on a flat, draft-heavy course on a hot day in September. Since then, his biggest days were placing top American (8th place) at the super-hot 2007 Hy-Vee World Cup Triathlon in Des Moines, and winning the first US men’s Olympic Triathlon slot at the Beijing World Cup with an 11th place finish that topped an injured Hunter Kemper by 12 seconds.
On this day, however, Shoemaker emerged from a non-wetsuit swim just six seconds behind eventual winner Gemmell, biked one second faster than Gemmell’s 1:11:26 on a supremely tough course, and ran just six seconds back of Gemmell’s race-best 32: 08 run.
Unlike the women’s contest, Huatulco did not seriously affect the men’s final 2008 ITU World Cup series point standings. Javier Gomez of Spain, who has been inactive on the World Cup circuit since the Olympics, took the title with 300 points. Bevan Docherty of New Zealand, the bronze medalist at Beijing, was second with 248 points, with Ivan Vasiliev of Russia third with 224 points.
Matt Reed, who faded to 15th with a heat-exhausted 36:18 run, was top American in the 2008 ITU World Cup series points chase in 14th. Shoemaker took second American and 32nd overall, Hunter Kemper 50th, Andy Potts tied for 60th and Brian Fleischmann was 71st.
2008 Huatulco BG Triathlon World Cup
October 26 / Huatulco, Mexico
1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run
Top 10 men
1. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 2:03:23
2. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 2:03:32
3. Laurent Vidal (FRA) 2:04:22
4. Thomas Springer (GER) 2:04:40
5. Leonardo Chacon (CRC) 2:04:47
6. Francisco Serrano (MEX) 2:05:15
7. Michael Raelert (GER) 2:05:22
8. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 2:05:32
9. Matt Chrabot (USA) 2:05:50
10. Tony Moulai (FRA) 2:06:21
Top 8 women
1. Samantha Warriner (NZL) 2:14:02
2. Sarah Groff (USA) 2:14:45
3. Andrea Whitcombe (GBR) 2:15:02
4. Jodie Swallow (GBR) 2:15:17
5. Lisa Norden (SWE) 2:17:23
6. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:17:58
7. Vendula Frintova (CZE) 2:18:54
8. Jillian Petersen (USA) 2:22:21
