Island House Invitational Triathlon: Gwen Jorgensen and Javier Gomez score double victories on Stage 2
Day two of the Island House Invitational Triathlon saw a repeat of day one with Gwen Jorgensen and Javier Gomez taking out the wins.
Stage two comprised a draft-legal “Enduro”, or triple triathlon, with a course consisting of a 500m swim, a 13.3km bike and 3.3km run that was repeated three times. The total distance of all three rounds equated to an Olympic Distance triathlon.
The innovative format was new to many of the athletes. While the distances looked to favor the short-course stars, the multiple rounds could play to pacing strengths of the long-course athletes such as Rachel Joyce and Tim O’Donnell.
On the women’s side, Olympic Silver medalist, Lisa Norden, was first out of the water just ahead of Flora Duffy, Lauren Brandon and Gwen Jorgensen. This group remained close together until the run when Jorgensen pulled away in the first kilometer. Jorgensen was first to enter the water for the second round, only to be reeled in on the bike, entering transition for her second run with Duffy, Norden, Rachel Klamer and Alicia Kaye at close quarters.
Once on the second run, Jorgensen again pulled away from the other women to start the third swim solo. However, the pattern of the first two rounds would repeated with Jorgensen losing ground during the swim and bike legs ad using her dominant run to break the finish line tape and take her second victory in two days. Jorgensen remains on top of the general classification after day two, with a 41 second lead over Flora Duffy and 1 minute and 3 seconds over Lisa Norden. With such tight margins ahead of tomorrow’s sprint distance, non-drafting race, the podium placings are far from decided.
In the men’s race, Javier Gomez and Cameron Dye led out the first swim with 9-second advantage over the main pack. While the pair led the initial kilometers of the bike, British long-course athlete, Tim Don and South African ITU athlete, Richard Murray worked together to bridge the gap and create a pack of four that hit the first run leg together. As with the women’s race, the reigning ITU World Champion, Javier Gomez edged away from the other men during the first kilometer of the run. Unlike the women’s race, Gomez would not be caught through the subsequent swim and bike rounds and he used each run leg to increase his lead.
The Spaniard would go on to win the stage in a total time of 1:50:43. Behind Gomez the race for second and third was tight with Don and Murray shaking free of Cameron Dye during the second run and staying close together for much of the next two rounds. It came down to the last run leg but Murray was just too quick for Don, taking second place with Don in the third and final podium spot.
Sunday’s final stage will be a sprint distance non-drafting triathlon
Roka Swim Leader
Female – Lauren Brandon
Male – Javier Gomez
Cervelo Bike Leader
Female – Flora Duffy
Male – Tim Don
Coca-Cola Run Leader
Female – Gwen Jorgensen
Male – Javier Gomez
General Classification
Women
- Gwen Jorgensen, 2:25:22
- Flora Duffy, + :41
- Lisa Norden, + 1:03
- Alicia Kaye, + 2:40
- Rachel Klamer, + 3:09
- Heather Wurtele, + 6:30
- Rachel Joyce, + 6:45
- Mirinda Carfrae, + 7:00
- Lauren Brandon, + 7:08
- Leanda Cave +7:44
Men
- Javier Gomez, 2:12:19
- Richard Murray, + :58
- Tim Don, + 1:20
- Leon Griffin, + 3:21
- Ben Hoffman, + 3:37
- Cam Dye, + 4:00
- Luke McKenzie, + 6:28
- Trevor Wurtele, +7:32
- Barrett Brandon, +7:57
- Tim O’Donnell, + 11:06
Source: Lava Magazine
