American triathlete Gwen Jorgensen continued her dominating winning streak with a win at the 2016 ITU World Cup in New Plymouth, with Kiwi triathlete Andrea Hewitt coming second and Kirsten Kasper (USA) coming third.
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“I have been in New Plymouth for a couple weeks now because my coach is originally from here and it has been great, the community has been so welcoming. I have loved being here,” Jorgensen said.
“I came here, there was a lot of good and tough athletes, a lot of fast swimmers so it was a good test. We were really pushing it on the swim, the bike and the run, so it was a really hard race. Next week I will start my WTS debut I guess for 2016 in Gold Coast, but the sole focus for me in August 20th, the Rio Olympics, so all of this has just been kind of training for that.”
South Africa’s Marie Rabie, Gwen Jorgensen (USA) AND Carolina Routier (ESP) led the 750m swim and a front pack of 22 led the tight, technical 20km bike course.
The front pack worked well to consolidate the break over the chasing group and after the second lap was out to 35sec. On the final 5km of the bike it was clear the winners would come from the front group with Hewitt at the head along with Rabie, Routier, Emma Jeffcoat (AUS) and Jorgensen keeping the pace high.
Jorgensen dismounted from the bike in 13th place but made short work of the run to get to the front where she battled with Hewitt for victory.
“I did not know what to expect today, this was my first race of the season for me,” said Hewitt. “My training has gone really well and I came here wanting a good result. I was pleased that Gwen was racing; we had a good battle out there, especially on the first lap of the run.