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ON THE
WORLD'S STAGE
BY ST E V E JAC KS O N
W
e’ve just seen the World Marathon record lowered by the
seemingly peerless Eluid Kipchoge. Amazing, astonishing,
inspiring. But I’ll take seeing a race like the World 70.3
Championships in Port Elizabeth over that any day. The men’s
event was arguably one of the best contests the sport has seen. Frodeno,
Gomez, A. Brownlee, three heavyweights of the sport. Olympic Gold Medals,
multiple world championships; there wasn’t much they hadn’t conquered
collectively and individually. It was an engrossing battle of wills and full
credit to Frodeno for literally running away with the title with a stunning
66-minute half marathon to close it.
The women’s race didn’t disappoint either, with Lucy Charles challenging
Daniella Ryf, whilst speedster Annie Haug looms as a real threat in long
course racing moving forward. Arguably the drama was even higher at the
WTS ITU Grand Final with Katie Zaferes and Vicky Holland having their own
match race within the race. Hometown girl Ashleigh Gentle took a significant
step forward with her Grand Final win, but it was great to see Zaferes
attempt to win the race rather than not lose it. Holland wisely resisted the
urge to match the hot early pace and recovered the deficit physically and
mentally, to ultimately push Gentle albeit unnecessarily and in the end, in
vain, all the way to the line to claim the World Champion title.
The men would also provide some drama, with the dogged Norwegian
Kristian Blummenfelt braving a breakaway with Belgian young gun Martin
van Riel in the blustery conditions. Van Reil lost his advantage with a
dropped chain shortly before T2 whilst Blummenflet pushed on, and despite
being caught by a pack mid-run, held strong to add to the drama as the
race hotted up. In the end, Vincent Luis forged ahead into the breeze, but it
was Mario Mola who secured the overall title with his runner-up finish whilst
young gun, Jake Birtwhistle, hung on to the final Series podium spot, a
significant leap for the Aussie.
Triathlon is fast becoming a great spectator sport with the emergence
of Mixed Relays, Superleague and Major League Tri, all of which we touch
on in this issue. All of these new formats are helping draw more exposure,
competitors, coverage and sponsors and importantly more colour to
the sport but races like we've just witnessed in Port Elizabeth, Kona and on
the Gold Coast will continue to provide the soul of the sport.
Here at Multisport Magazine, we’ve tracked the numbers from our
transition into the e-mag format and we’re already adapting to work with
our readers. We’ll be putting out a monthly mini-mag or e-newsletter to stay
in touch between issues and condensing our issues to work in with your
lifestyle. We’ve also partnered with Sports Dietitians Australia and parkrun
Australia to help keep more great content coming your way more often, in
bite sized pieces to fuel your insatiable passions for tri, trail, running and
adventure racing!
STEVE JACKSON
EDITOR
6 | MULTISPORT MAGAZINE
Managing Editor
Steve Jackson
Editor
Michaela Smith
Magazine Designer
Rachael Charles Creative
Contact:
Sport 3 Group
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