Cover ยป News
19-08-2008
Hunter Kemper comes in seventh and Jan Frodeno wins Olympic gold in Men’s Triathlon
Orbea-sponsored Hunter Kemper of the US crossed the finish line in seventh place in the Olympic Men's Triathlon that took place today in Beijing. With only 50m to go to the finish line, Jan Frodeno of Germany outsprinted Bevan Docherty of New Zealand and Simon Whitfield of Canada to claim gold.
The Cologne-born triathlete, who had trained in South Africa, wasn't even among the favourites. It seemed like he'd be trailing behind the Spaniards, who dominated the race right from the start, but he turned the race upside down, managing to catch his rivals and leaving the 2008 world champion Javier Gómez Noya (4th) and Iván Raña (5th), both of Spain, behind. Hunter Kemper was always in the leading group, and he was very close to winning a medal.
The American triathlete went out of the water -whose temperature guaranteed a non-wetsuit swim- at 18min 34sec (6th place), after a 1.5km swim leg in the Shisanling reservoir. At the start of the six-lap 40km cycling leg, the racers tried to balance forces. It was in this part of the trial that those seeking the triathlon's gold, like Australia's Courtney Atkinson and New Zealand's Bevan Docherty, had to make a decisive move. Britain's Alistair Brownlee and Frenchman Frédéric Belaubre livened the first lap, and Kemper was excellent, with a time of 1:18:08 (7th place) when the cycling leg concluded.
Finally, the running section was set up at a good pace, and when it came down to it, only the hopes were left -the two Spaniards, British Brownlee, Australian Atkinson, Canadian Whitfield, New Zealander Docherty, Denmark's Rasmus Henning, Germany's Frodeno and Daniel Unger, and Kemper himself. The race was decided with 2.5km left, as Noya, Docherty, Frodeno, and Whitfield fought for victory in the final lap. It was then that Frodeno broke away from the leading group and took the gold medal. Kemper kept the 7th place he had landed in the cycling leg.
1. Jan Frodeno (GER) 18:14 59:01 30:46 1:48:53.28
2. Simon Whitfield (CAN) 18:18 58:56 30:48 1:48:58.47
3. Bevan Docherty (NZL) 18:23 58:51 30:57 1:49:05.59
4. Javier Gómez Noya (SPA) 18:08 59:06 31:03 1:49:13.92
5. Iván Raña (SPA) 18:22 58:52 31:14 1:49:22.03
6. Daniel Unger (GER) 18:25 58:49 31:35 1:49:43.78
7. Hunter Kemper (USA) 18:04 59:06 31:40 1:49:48.75
8. Rasmus Henning (DEN) 18:18 58:57 31:48 1:49:57.47
9. Igor Sysoev (RUS) 18:02 59:15 31:41 1:49:59.38
10. Frédéric Belaubre (FRA) 18:03 59:11 31:48 1:50:00.30
Copyright ORBEA 2008
