Sizzling Danish Victory for Pedersen in Huatulco WTCS Mexico
The temperature was rising at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Huatulco, Mexico, with the final opportunity for many elite women triathletes to make a last-ditch effort to rise through the rankings to put themselves on their national Olympic selectors radar for a plane ticket to Tokyo.
The sprint course consisted of a one-lap, 750m swim in the bay of Santa Cruz, leading into a four-lap, 20km bike course that traverses the town of Huatulco with two long, straight sections with tight, technical turns at the end. The two-lap run finished in Santa Cruz Plaza.
Mexico was well represented being on home-soil with an 11-strong contingent of which Pan-American Games bronze medallist Cecilia Perez, was on the start line with other Mexican favourites Jessica Romero Tinoco and Michelle Flipo. Not to be outdone Japan lined up no fewer than nine Japanese athletes with Niina Kishimoto, Yuka Sato and Juri Ide showing recent form to suggest they could work their way onto the podium ahead of the team selection for a massive home Olympic Games.
However, the plethora of Mexican and Japanese’s athletes was not enough for podium glory. That honour went to Denmark’s Alberte Kjaer Pedersen who produced a superb display on Saturday to secure her maiden World Triathlon Cup gold medal in Huatulco, Mexico. The Dane clocked an overall time of 1:00:24 to finish ahead of American Kasper (1:00:36) and Austria’s Perterer (1:00:37), who battled it out with Kasper taking sliver and Perterer bronze.
It was American Kasper first out of the water in 00:09:53 together with Austria’s Perterer ahead of the Dane, Pedersen who was way down the pecking order coming out of the water some 18 seconds behind the leaders. As Kasper and Perterer headed the lead pack out of T1 for the cycle leg, Petersen showed her real strength lay in the cycling with the front pack soon becoming 20 strong. Into T2 and out onto the run it was a race for those with the strongest run. Half-way around the run circuit Kasper and Perterer lost ground to the Dane who found a fifth gear to pull away from her rivals to cross the winning line for her victory.
