Tra: Germany's Frodeno in shock triathlon win

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-2008
Tra: Germany's Frodeno in shock triathlon win

BEIJING, Aug 19 AFP - Germany's Jan Frodeno sprinted down the final straight to claim
a shock win after a thrilling Olympic Games men's triathlon today.

Frodeno, 27, passed Canada's 2000 gold medallist Simon Whitfield with just metres left,
finishing in one hour 48 minutes 53 seconds.

Athens silver-medallist Bevan Docherty of New Zealand took bronze while there was heartbreak
for hot favourite Javier Gomez, triathlon's "Tiger Woods," who was relegated to fourth.

The 1.94m Frodeno was nobody's pre-race tip with a relatively modest record including
13 top-10 World Cup finishes and last year's German national title.

But he put on a devastating burst of speed to run down Whitfield and leave Gomez and
Docherty trailing.

The four had been neck-and-neck entering the stadium but world champion Gomez faded
at the final turn, dashing the Spaniard's hopes of a first Olympic medal.

Earlier, Russia's Alexander Bryukhankov led out the swim but it was New Zealander Shane
Reed who landed first and made it through the transition followed by Frederic Belaube
of France with Gomez not far behind.

Luxembourg's Dirk Bockel and Axel Zeebroek of Belgium broke away on the bike leg and
established a lead of nearly a minute on the favourites going into the run.

Their advantage was chopped to just 20 seconds by the end of lap one and it disappeared
entirely in the next lap as Gomez and Spanish team-mate Ivan Rana hit the front.

The smart money was on Gomez, 25, who has four World Cup victories this season after
winning the series for the past two years running. He also won last year's World Cup race
on this course.

But the expected surge never came as he was tracked all the way by Frodeno, Whitfield
and Docherty, and ran out of steam at the last.

The 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run was held at the scenic Ming Tomb Reservoir
near Beijing in steamy temperatures of about 28 degrees.

Australia's Emma Snowsill took women's gold yesterday in a time of 1:58:27.

AFP tb

KEYWORD: OLY08 TRA MEN LEAD

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