Lisa Perterer of Austria came from behind to nip Taylor Spivey of the U.S. by inches and Delian Stateff of Italy earned a home country victory on a tough course at the Cagliari World Cup in Sardinia, Italy.

Perterer and Spivey finished the sprint distance course in equal 1:00:13 times with India Lee of Great Britain taking third, 1 second behind the duelists.

“I didn’t know what I was thinking at the end,” Perterer told ITU media, “but I just kept telling myself ‘You can do this.’”

Spivey was gracious to the winner after their duel.

“We pushed the most power up the hill and the rest of the bike course was really just recovery for the next hill,” Spivey told ITU media. “I tried to stay relaxed on the run and picked off some of the girls on the first lap. The final stretch was really exciting with four of us coming into the tape. Maybe I let go a little too soon, but I’m really proud of Lisa.”

Spivey’s silver medal performance was the third ITU World Cup medal of her career, adding to the silvers she won last year in Madrid, Spain, and Miyazaki, Japan.

Stateff closed with a second-best 15:22 5k run to finish in 54:45 with a 4 seconds margin on Hayden Wilde of New Zealand and 9 seconds on third place finisher Davide Uccellari of Italy.

Perterer and Stateff thus earned their career first ITU World Cup victories.

Women

Lucy Hall of Great Britain and Fuka Sega of Japan swam 9:50 and 9:51 to break away to a 10 seconds lead in the swim, followed by a pack of four at 10:01 including Emma Jeffcoat of Australia, Alice Betto and Ilaria Zane of Italy, and Anna Contreras of Spain, then a huge pack led by Spivey and Chelsea Burns of the U.S. at 10:13.

Spivey, Burns, Jeffcoat and Betto quickly caught the swim leaders and four more women, including Verena Steinhauser, joined to make a lead pack of 10 women to charge five times up the long, steep climb up the Viale Regina Margherita and the subsequent winding, white knuckle descent.

After T2, Steinhauser surged to an early lead with only Perterer, Lee and Spivey with enough strength to stay with her. With 400 meters to go, the quartet hit the accelerator with Spivey taking the first crack at the front. With a last full measure of speed, Perterer caught Spivey by a fraction of a second for the victory with Lee one full second back at the line.

Men

As a rising wind turned the water choppy, Raoul Shaw of France finished the swim in 8:56, opening a 9 seconds lead on a large pack led by Uxio Abuin of Spain, then 15 seconds on Dmitry Polyanskiy of Russia, the winner at the Astana World Cup two weeks ago, and 21 seconds on Delian Stateff of Italy.

Shaw opened a 15 seconds lead on the chasers after the first lap of the bike, only to be hunted down and swallowed up by a pack of 25 men led by Tim van Hemel of Belgium and Eli Hemming and Darr Smith of the U.S. On the final lap, Davide Uccellari of Italy and Hayden Wilde of New Zealand surged to the front of the field leading into T2.

Stateff was a few seconds and several places off the front, but as the field tackled the steep hill, Stateff began closing in on Wilde and Uccellari with Britain’s Barclay Izzard hanging tough.

On the two U-turns in the final 200 meters leading to the finish line, Stateff pulled away from Wilde and kicked to a 4 seconds margin of victory, with Uccellari another 5 seconds back in third. Australia’s Luke Willian took 4th and Eli Hemming of the U.S. ended up 5th.

Alex Yee of Great Britain closed with the day’s fastest run – 15:02, which was 20 seconds better than Stateff’s next best effort – to take 8th place.

Cagliari World Cup
Cagliari, Italy
June 2, 2018
S 750m / B 20k / R 5k

Results

Women

1. Lisa Perterer (AUT) 1:00:13
2. Taylor Spivey (USA) 1:00:13
3. India Lee (GBR) 1:00:14
4. Verena Steinhauser (ITA) 1:00:19
5. Emma Jeffcoat (AUS) 1:00:34
6. Rebecca Spence (NZL) 1:00:36
7. Alice Betto (ITA) 1:00:47
8. Ilaria Zane (ITA) 1:01:08
9. Lucy Hall (GBR) 1:01:21
10. Chelsea Burns (USA) 1:01:39
26. Kyleigh Spearing (USA) 1:03:35
44. Megan Foley (USA) 1:07:58

Men

1. Delian Stateff (ITA) 54:45
2. Hayden Wilde (NZL) 54:49
3. Davide Uccellari (ITA) 54:54
4. Luke Willian (AUS) 54:59
5. Eli Hemming (USA) 55:05
6. Tom Richard (FRA) 55:11
7. Barclay Izzard (GBR) 55:13
8. Alex Yee (GBR) 55:19
9. Gianluca Pozzatti (ITA) 55:22
10. Uxio Abuin Ares (ESP) 55:23
13. Sachar Sagiv (ISR) 55:39
14. Darr Smith (USA) 55:45
17. Morgan Pearson (USA) 55:52
29. Tony Smoragiewicz (USA) 56:53
46. Collin Chartier (USA) 58:32
54. Marty Andrie (USA) 1:00:56