ITU Cancun World Cup Triathlon
Sunday, November 2, 2003
Cancun, Mexico
1.5k swim, 40k draft legal bike, 10k run
Complete Results

The weather on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was perfect for triathlon with partly cloudy skies, air temperature approaching 30oC and a blustery wind off the Caribbean. Isla Mujeres provided a perfect backdrop as a strong field of 40 women took their mark for the swim start. A compact group of 4 including Canada's Sharon Donnelly and Carol Ross, Portugal's Vanessa Fernandez and Brazil's Carla Moreno slipped away on the swim and built up a 45 second lead by the time they exited the 1500m course. They quickly swept through the first transition and got away cleanly onto the 8 lap, 40km bike course.

Through the 1^st half of the bike, the leaders built up a 1:15 lead on a huge pack of athletes behind. By the 6^th lap, the chase pack got organized and with Canadian teammates, Carol Montgomery and Gillian Moody along with Natalie Daumas of France pulling at the front they gained 25 seconds on the leaders and were just 50 seconds back.

The gains on the leaders were short lived and by lap 7 the leaders had built their lead back to 1:15 with Donnelly and Fernandez at the front. Venezuela's Rosemary Lopez, Nancy Alvarez of Argentina and Esther Aquayo of Mexico did most of the work at the front of the chase pack through the final stages of the bike.

Carla Morena was the first through the bike to run transition and onto the 4 lap, 10km run course. Vanessa Fernandez, who alone with Morena was the best runner in the quartet at the front, exited the transition just seconds back, followed by Donnelly and Ross. The chase pack was led through transition by Tania Haiboeck of Austria, followed by Fiorella D;Cruz of Colombia and Samantha McGlone of Canada. Morena, Fernandez and Donnelly ran through the 1^st lap still tightly connected at the front as Ross was dropped and then passed by Canadian teammates Natasha Filliol, Carol Montgomery and Samantha McGlone. Morena and Fernandez pulled away from Donnelly just after the halfway point as Filliol passed Donnelly to take over 3^rd place.

Fernandez and Morena continued to run shoulder to shoulder at the front, as an interesting struggle took place among 6 of Canada's top women, all in the hunt for the podium and Olympic Qualifying standards set by their National Olympic Committee: Natasha Filliol, Carol Montgomery, Sharon Donnelly, Samantha McGlone, Gillian Moody and Lauren Groves. Natasha Filliol caught the lead duo on the last lap, and with 200 metres to go put the pedal down and took off on Morena and Fernandez. She won her 1^st World Cup in Cancun with a margin of 12 seconds over Carla Morena. Vanessa Fernandez was 3^rd and further 11 seconds back.

Top 10 Finishes:
1.      Natasha Filliol, CAN, 1:10:35
2.      Carla Morena, BRA, 1:10:46
3.      Vanessa Fernandez, POR, 1:10:57
4.      Carol Montgomery, CAN, 2:11:18
5.      Samantha McGlone, CAN, 2:11:27
6.      Lauren Groves, CAN, 2:11:38
7.      Tania Haiboeck, AUT, 2:12:07
8.      Adara Garcia, MEX, 2:12:48
9.      Gillian Moody, CAN, 2:12:56
10.  Nancy Alvarez, ARG, 2:13:05
 

In the men's event, world ranked #4, Volodomyr Polikarpenko of the Ukraine moved into the lead as soon as the starter's signal sounded. He was the 1^st to exit into the swim to bike transition, followed closely by Rasmus Henning of Denmark, the winner of last weekend's Athens Sport Event and ITU World Cup. Brazil's swim specialist Paulo Miyashiro was 3^rd to exit, just ahead of Russia's Ivan Vassiliev. Polikarpenko went solo at the front for the first lap, and by the 2km mark he had a 30 second lead on Henning and Vassiliev who made up the chase pack. But with some powerful cyclist in the big pack behind, the early leaders were soon swallowed up on the 2^nd lap. Hungary's Szablocs Varga did most of the work pulling a group of 15 up to the leaders.

Rasmus Henning, Raul Cordoba of Spain and Uzziel Valderranbano of Mexico continued to work the lead pack of 18, and by the start of the 3^rd lap they had a full minute on a chase group of 13 that was led by Mexico's Carlos Probert, Daniel Fontana of Argentina and Gilberto Gonzalez of Venezuela. A second chase group of 15 was a further 30 seconds back at this point and was led by Stefan Perg of Austria and Peter Hobor of Hungary.

At the midway point of the bike Rene Gohler of Germany, Jeff Sneed of the USA and Csaba Kuttor of Hungary were at the front of the lead group, as Sebastien LaFlamme of Canada broke from the chase pack in an attempt to bridge to the leaders. He got as much as 25 seconds on the big chase pack which was led by Bruno Pais of Portugal, Marcin Welarski of Sweden and Virgilio DeCastilho of Brazil. On the 5^th lap, the 3rd chase pack caught the 2^nd group to form a huge pack of over 30.

Zimbabwe's Rory Mackie and Mexico's Arturo Garza broke from the big pack and caught LaFlamme on the 6^th lap and appeared to be in no-man's land between the 2 big pack, 1:25 behind the leaders and 30 seconds ahead of the huge chase pack. Tamas Liptak of Hungary, Igor Syssoev of Russia and Paulo Antunes of Portugal worked their magic at the front of the lead pack as Javier Rosas of Mexico powered the big chase group along with his teammate Eugenio Chimal and Guiseppe Ferraro of Italy. Mackie, Garza and LaFlamme were swallowed up by the chase pack before the bike to run transition.

Rasmus Henning was the first off the bike onto the 4-lap 10km run, with Paulo Atunes on his heels, along with Tim Don of Great Britain. By the 1 km mark, the trio at the front had a 20 second lead on the rest of the field. However 20 seconds was not enough for a man with more 2003 World Cup podium finishes than any other - Volodomyr Polikarpenko. He and Kahlefeldt reeled the leaders in then dropped Don and Atunes.

The trio at the front slowly pulled away from the field with Henning doing most of the honours at the front for the second half of the 10km. Excitement started to build among the triathlon-crazy Mexican spectators that lined the course as all indications pointed to another incredible sprint finish - a feature becoming a tradition in World Cup racing. Tim Don was in 4^th at this point with Ivan Vassiliev 5^th (the best result for a Russian athletes this season.)

Polikarpenko moved into the lead with 200 metres to go, then powered home for his second World Cup win of the season and a solid grip on the World Cup Series. His time was 1:54:39. Brad Kahlefelt was second 6 seconds back with Rasmus Henning in 3^rd a further 12 seconds behind.

Top 10:
1.                  Volodomyr Polikarpenko, UKR, 1:54:39
2.                  Brad Kahlefeldt, AUS, 1:54:46
3.                  Rasmus Henning, DEN, 1:54:58
4.                  Tim Don, GBR, 1:55:12
5.                  Ivan Vassiliev, RUS, 1:55:24
6.                  Franz Hufer, AUT, 1:55:54
7.                  Brent McMahon, CAN, 1:56:01
8.                  Rene Gohler, GER, 1:56:14
9.                  Jermo Hast, FIN, 1:56:23,
10.              Daniel Fontana, ARG, 1:56:40

The World Cup Series now moved further south to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for next weekend's ITU World Cup. Please visit www.triathlon.org for complete results from Cancun.