bu Dhabi hosts first leg of the 2015 International Triathlon Union's series. Amateur and elite triathletes converge in the UAE’s capital for the IPIC World Triathlon Abu Dhabi. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The world's top athletes lined up on the Abu Dhabi Corniche on Saturday for the season
00:17opener of the 2015 International Triathlon Union's World Triathlon Series, or WTS.
00:23The event was the first WTS race to be held in the Middle East, reigning world champions
00:28Gwen Jorgensen of the U.S. and Javier Gomez of Spain headlined a stellar field that included
00:34nine of the top ten ranked men and six of the top ten ranked women in the world.
00:41Starting from the beach by the Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club, athletes swam one lap of a
00:45750-meter course, biked four laps of 5 km each, and ran two 2.5 km circuits in search
00:53of the first WTS points of the year.
00:56The Abu Dhabi event saw thousands of age group participants, over 2,000 athletes in total
01:01raced the course on the Abu Dhabi's Corniche.
01:04The ITU World Triathlon Series also debuted three distances, Sprint, Olympic, and Maxi.
01:10More than 600 athletes flew to Abu Dhabi for the event, including athletes from Bahrain,
01:15Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Brazil, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Netherlands,
01:20France, Yemen, and many more.
01:23The series started exactly where it left off last year, as reigning ITU World Champion
01:28Gwen Jorgensen proved she will again be the woman to beat with a stunning performance
01:32in the season opener.
01:33Jorgensen left the water 35 seconds behind the leaders and then stepped onto the run
01:37course around one minute down.
01:39She then caught 45 seconds of that deficit in the first 2.5 km lap.
01:44She took the lead from Bermuda's Flora Duffy with about 1.5 km to go and pushed further
01:49ahead to win in 58 minutes and 58 seconds.
01:52Her run split was 15 minutes and 57 seconds.
01:57In the Elite Men's category, Spaniard Mario Mola proved himself a specialist sprint distance
02:02triathlete, winning the race in 52 minutes and 31 seconds.
02:06The Spanish triathlete only broke away from the others halfway through the 5 km run and
02:12was trailed closely by Vincent Luis and Richard Murray, who finished second and third respectively.
02:17Mola's final sprint allowed him to finish ahead of Vincent by 13 seconds.
02:22Ayrish Idenbileza for Golf News.