From www.triathlonireland.com Emma lined up for the final race in her campaign to be the first athlete to represent Ireland at the Olympic Triathlon event. To find out more please read on……
All photos used by kind permission of the ITU Media and TV department.
The field consisted of 79 women, many others also trying to get enough points to make the ranking to qualify for Beijing. Some of the Nations were also competing for enough ranking points to obtain a third coveted slot for Beijing. As on the ITU’s directors Libby Burrell commented, ‘Emma Davis has had a meteoric rise this season…’ Emma lived up to the comment and had another meteoric race, finishing 15th in the World, Ireland’s best ever result on the World stage.
Emma was proudly watched by the Irish age-group team, and her parents. Well done to all the age group athletes who competed in very hard conditions on Saturday. The men , and women 55 and over, had their races turned into a duathlon, owing to poor condition for the swim. A report from the Irish age-group team will follow.
On Sunday, 8 June, Emma Davis lined up with 79 other women to contest the International Triathlon Union World Championships in Vancouver. Scenic English Bay had been experiencing some very inclement weather, with air temperatures of around 14 degrees and water temperature of just over 11 degrees, many athletes were feeling the effects of the cold. With many of the athletes, such as Vanessa Fernandes (POR), being unaccustomed to the poor conditions, the race was opened right up. Emma Davis, is also not fond of the cold conditions, and clad herself in precautionary arm warmers and a base layer.
The swim was never going to be fast in these conditions and unsurprisingly open water swim champion Sara McLarty led from the start and came out with a small lead on the rest. Normally the favourite in good conditions, Fernandes came out in touch with the lead pack, but not looking in her best form. Emma exited around 20s down, a little down on her usual position, the cold was starting to change the dynamics of the race. Many of the athletes struggled to clip their helmets, five weeks ago in Spain Fernandes had started the run in her helmet, after failing to un-clip it in the cold conditions. Early on the lapped course, a small lead pack of around six formed. The gauntlet was laid down by Helen Tucker (GBR) and Sarah Haskins (USA) as they drove off the front of the lead group on the hill, wanting to put time between themselves and the strong runners in the lead pack. Cycling strongly they gradually put more time into the pack behind, which had now merged with the third bike pack to make up over 15 athletes. Emma was cycling well, and was in the front of the chase pack in around 7th place. In a demonstration of the chess game aspect of international triathlon, and of how much team-work comes into play at this level, the other GBR and USA athletes were working hard to slow down the chase pack to let their two team-mates in the breakaway make more time on the stronger runners in the race. Nations with smalls teams, such as Ireland’s team of one, don’t have this tool at their disposal (yet!).
Coming into transition the break-away of Tucker and Haskins had just over two minutes on the chase pack, and set-out on the run side-by-side. Emma came into T2 in the middle of the chase pack, setting out on the run, many of the stronger runners took a while to get into their stride, still suffering with the conditions. Emma found her run legs by the 5km mark and started to gradually move up through the field, and into the top 20. At the front Tucker was running strongly, still side by side with Haskins, but looking the more comfortable of the two athletes. Coming into the home straight Tucker kicked and pulled away from Haskins to take her first race Victory at World Cup level, and with it her first World Title. A great achievement following two years of injury. Helen was coached for many years by Chris Jones, now working with Triathlon Ireland as our National Coach. The rest of the race was hotting up, with the three Australians Densham, Moffatt, and Abram battling it out with Kiwi Warriner. At the line Warriner just edged out Densham to take the Bronze. The Australians showed the depth that they have in Triathlon by taking 4th, 5th, and 6th position. Kate Allen (AUT), the Athens Olympic gold medalist, had a great race, coming in eighth. This was following a very bad bike crash in New Zealand in a race two months ago. A great achievement by Allen, and one that should qualify her for Beijing and possibly give the Austrian women a third slot for the women in Beijing. Emma put it all into a great finishing effort and crossed the line in 15th, the best ever result for Ireland at World level. Speaking immediately after the race, Emma said, ‘I’m delighted, but very cold.’
Fernandes, showed what a great Champion she was by finishing the race and picking up speed to finish tenth. She had said in the pre-race press conference that the conditions wouldn’t suit her, but that despite Beijing being her main priority, that she didn’t want to give her World Title away by not racing, and would give the race her all.
We now await the official final rankings for the Olympic qualification, and the confirmation from the ITU of Emma’s qualification.
Triathlon Ireland would like to congratulate Emma on her fantastic race, and for putting Irish Triathlon up on the World stage. It’s not a co-incidence that to back this up we already have several athletes coming up the ranks, with some looking at international level competition this year. We look forward to the future of Irish Triathlon on the international stage and a time where we’ll be able to field a team of athletes in the green tri-suit!
From www.triathlonireland.com
Well done Emma from all at Runireland.com