The 2015 World Triathlon Series started exactly where it left off last year, when reigning ITU World Champion Gwen Jorgensen proved that she will again be the woman to beat with a stunning performance in Abu Dhabi's season opener.
Bermuda’s Flora Duffy finished third clocking a time of 59:23. Duffy clocked 10:02 on the Swim, 30:55 on the Bike Course and then closed out with a time of 17:23 on the Run Course.
Jorgensen left the water 35 seconds down on the leaders, and then stepped onto the run course around one minute down. But in an incredible burst of speed, the No.1 cut 45 seconds of that deficit in the first 2.5km lap. She took the lead from Duffy with about 1.5K to go and pushed further ahead to win comfortably, in a time of 58:58 seconds. Her run split was 15.57.
“I was shocked by how fast I ran,” Jorgensen said straight after the race. “...I’ve had some good run sessions but I didn’t know I was running that well…you can’t give up until the finish line, that’s something I’ve learned.”
Behind her Katie Zaferes, finally broke her bad streak of World Triathlon Series luck. While a multiple World Cup winner, Zaferes had struggled to transfer that to series races, with mechanical issues and injuries the main culprits, but did so in fine form in Abu Dhabi.
“This has been my goal since I’ve started triathlon so to finally achieve it I’m pretty stoked,” she said.
Behind her Bermuda’s Duffy broke through for her first World Triathlon Series Medal.
Despite the likes of Haug and Hewitt pulling the chase, with strong cyclists Duffy and Lisa Norden at the helm of lead bike pack, there was little opportunity for the chase to decrease their deficit. Though it initially appeared like they had, the gap to the chase pack was just 14 seconds after the first 5km lap, but it didn’t remain that way.
Just after the halfway point Norden, Duffy and Lucy Hall decided to make a break off the front. That pushed the pace of those immediately behind them, as Jerdonek and Zaferes bridged up to join them. By the 15km mark the pressure piled on by this group meant the large chase group was pushed back to 40 seconds again, and just over a minute at the second transition.
But that deficit didn’t faze Jorgensen at all, as she immediately started cutting through the field. While Duffy strode to the front and stayed there for most of the run, even she couldn’t hold off the force that is Jorgensen in full flight.
The title is her third World Triathlon Series sprint title. Of eight WTS sprint distance races, Jorgensen is the only woman to have won more than one. Overall, it is Jorgensen's ninth World Triathlon Series win, and continuing on a streak that started last year, her sixth World Triathlon Series win in a row.
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