Jonnie plans to work with a group of disabled children to show them, and their families, that there are no barriers to participating in sport and physical activities given the right support and tools.
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He is now on the search for up to four disabled children aged between 8 and 15 to join Jonnie’s Blade Camp (working title) which will air on Channel 4 in 2020.
Jonnie said: “My own story and those of many Paralympians prove sport and an active lifestyle is possible regardless of disability.
“Giving disabled youngsters the support and encouragement they need to stay active doesn’t just help them physically, it can potentially provide them with a life-changing sense of confidence and self-worth.
“This isn’t the search for the next Paralympic sprint champion, this project is about opening young people’s eyes so they can release their potential and realise how much they can achieve whether that’s participating in structured sport or just running around and messing about in the playground with their friends.”
Jonnie will initially meet the children and their families and find out more about them and set a goal, such as taking part for the first time in a school sports day. Each child selected to take part in the series will receive, and keep, their own running blade.
Jonnie will meet the children several times over the course of about eight months to inspire, train and take them on a journey to a more active life. He’ll also stay in regular contact with them to find out how they are doing and offer support and encouragement.
Parents of children who regularly use a prosthetic leg to take part in sport are being invited to put forward their children’s names as potential participants. Parents who feel their child could benefit from joining Jonnie’s Blade Camp can contact the production company, One Tribe TV, which is helping Jonnie set up the project.
Champion-elect Katie Zafares knows staying upright on the bike will be her top priority if she’s to achieve a richly deserved first world title in the World Triathlon Series Grand Final in Lausanne on Saturday.
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The 30-year-old American came a cropper in the Olympic test event in Tokyo a fortnight ago where she appeared to catch her wheel on a barrier leg and was fortunate not to be more seriously injured.
But despite the scare and battle scars she will line up in Switzerland a clear favourite after one of the most dominant WTS campaigns since the series inception in 2009.
Zafares will add any points gained from the Grand Final to the four victories and a runners-up spot already achieved as her five best counting results. The upshot is she only needs a best placed finish of 12th to secure the title and an extra $83,000 from the ITU bonus pool.
A 35th place in Hamburg this season aside when Zafares fell victim to another bike crash, she hasn’t placed that lowly in a race she’s finished since the 2016 Grand Final of Cozumel. A successful placing will also banish any lingering memories from last year where she led the standings all season before being beaten by Vicky Holland in the final race to relinquish the crown.
If the American does slip up, the most likely benefactors are the British pair of Jess Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown. The duo shot to more mainstream attention after the Olympic test event for crossing the line hand-in-hand and being controversially disqualified, but they also showed the form in Tokyo that has made them two of the most consistently high performing triathletes this year.
Learmonth has a WTS runner-up and three third places to count on this season to go into Lausanne second overall, and Taylor-Brown won in Leeds to place third in the standings.
But hope rest on a Zafares mishap. If Taylor-Brown wins in Lausanne, Zafares would have to finish 15th or below for the 25-year-old to take the title. For Learmonth to be successful, a victory would need to be complemented by Zafares finishing 13th or lower. If Learmonth did this win the race, it would still be a breakthrough. Despite seven World Series podiums, and a European triathlon crown from 2017, she is yet to win a WTS race.
Non Stanford also lines up in Lausanne after a consistent season highlighted by victory in Hamburg. Having placed a revised seventh in the Tokyo test event after the disqualifications, the 2013 world champion and fourth-placed Rio Olympian will want to round off the WTS by staying in the forefront of British selectors minds for Tokyo next year.
Also on the start-line is Vicky Holland. The Bath-based triathlete and reigning world champion has dealt with injury and not had the season she wanted in trying to defend her title, but looks to be heading into form after posting the fastest run split on the shortened 5km leg in Tokyo.
The Grand Final is not a British selection race for the Olympics and the climate and terrain are markedly different, but if Holland’s continues to show she can produce on the big stage, then it puts her in good stead for the chance of a third Olympic Games.
Sophie Coldwell is also on the start-list and will be looking for another top 10 finish after her ninth place in Leeds and a revised ninth in the test event. She’s also placed 14th in Hamburg and 15th in Edmonton and won a second tier World Cup race in Cagliari in May, to show that she’s thriving at this level. As a strong swim-biker, expect Coldwell to be in the thick of the action from the start.
Rounding out the British contingent is Beth Potter, the track 10,000m runner turned triathlete. Potter is the reigning European champion having won in Weert in Holland in May and finished a respectable 14th in her only WTS start in 2019. The Scot is racing in her first Grand Final and will be looking for the swim of her life to try and stay with the pace early and keep herself in contention.
Of the other competitors, the return of Flora Duffy – the 2016 and 2017 world champion – to ITU racing brings plenty of expectation. Duffy hadn’t raced for over a year before a powerhouse cycling display in the Tokyo test event led to her eventually being crowned the winner, and with a fortnight’s more run training in her legs, and a challenging bike course that suits her strength, few would be surprised if the Bermudan fashioned a third Grand Final victory to go with previous wins in Rotterdam (2017) and Cozumel (2016).
The final name that jumps out is that of 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist, Nicola Spirig. The Swiss athlete, now 37, who has returned to racing after a third child, will relish testing her mettle against younger rivals and placed eighth in her single WTS outing in 2019. She’s also fond of the venue having won a World Cup race in Lausanne last year and a world mixed relay title here in 2010. To underline Spirig’s longevity in the sport, she also finished fifth here in the junior women’s race 21 years ago as a 16-year-old.
As Friday au d’oeuvres, the Under-23 and junior world titles are also on the line. Britain is represented by Olivia Mathias, Sophie Alden and Kate Waugh in the U-23 race. Mathias is the highest ranked Brit and has tasted victory this season over the sprint distance in a European Cup race in Olsztyn in northern Poland in May. The highest ranked triathlete is France’s Emilie Morier, who finished a commendable 12th place in the Tokyo test event and was part of the successful mixed relay quartet that won the world title in Hamburg.
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The women’s junior world championship, often a precursor to those who’ll break through to the top or the triathlon world is raced over the sprint distance and Britain is represented by Erin Wallace and Sophia Green. The last British winner was Scotland’s Kirsty McWilliam in 2008, backing up success for Hollie Avil the previous year.
Vincent Luis will look to see off his training partners to collect his first ITU world title in Lausanne on Saturday.
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The French triathlete decided to skip the Tokyo Olympic test event a fortnight ago to prepare thoroughly and requires no worse than a fifth place finish to lift the trophy.
The omens are good for Luis. The 30-year-old has excelled in previous Grand Final competitions, winning in 2017 in Rotterdam and last year in Gold Coast. And in six WTS races in 2019, only once has he finished outside the top five, and that was a sixth place finish in Leeds.
His closest rival is training partner under Joel Filliol and three-time and defending champion, Mario Mola of Spain. Mola also opted to sit out the contest in Tokyo, but after winning the opening race of the season in Abu Dhabi struggled for form before runners-up spots in Edmonton and Montreal reignited his hopes.
In the most unpredictable year of WTS men’s racing to date, no fewer than 15 triathletes have made the podium and six start in Lausanne with at least a mathematical chance of lifting the crown.
For the evergreen Javier Gomez to win a record-breaking sixth title it would require victory for the London 2012 silver medallist and Luis slipping to eighth and Mola to third or below.
It would take an even more unlikely finishing scenario – or more likely a huge bike pile-up – for Spain’s Fernando Alarza, Australia’s Jake Birtwhistle or Belgium’s Marten van Riel to be in with a chance.
For a third straight year, no Brit is in contention, showing that is has not been a vintage season for the home contingent and the Brownlee-led charge of the past decade looks to have finally relented.
It has been a breakthrough year for Alex Yee, though, who can boast a second in Abu Dhabi and fifth place in Yokohama to go with a World Cup in win in Cape Town in February. Yee’s running calibre was underlined not only by his WTS form but a personal best 13:29 clocking over 5,000m in the London Anniversary Games in July. If the Londoner can continue to turn his potential into results then Olympic year promises to be even more fruitful.
Yee lines up with Jonathan Brownlee as the only two Brits in the 68-strong field. Brownlee looked back to form after winning in Edmonton – his first WTS triumph since Stockholm 2017, but will not have been content with a fifth place in the Tokyo test event given the absence of Luis, Mola, Gomez and Alarza.
Brownlee has a chequered history in the season-ending Grand Final and has never won it. It was the scene of his near collapse in Cozumel in 2016 and he was out-sprinted by the slimmest of margins by Javier Gomez in 2013. Both times the title was his for the taking. On the one occasion he was crowned champion, in 2012, Gomez also beat him in the finale in Auckland.
Lausanne is a challenging course that should suit him, though. He split the two Norwegians, Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt to finish runner-up in a World Cup race in the Swiss town last year and did win a now-discontinued ITU sprint world title there in both 2010 and 2011 – on the first occasion getting the better of Tim Don and then seeing off both Gomez and his brother Alistair for gold.
Ben Dijkstra, James Teagle and Harry Leleu are the Brits in contention for the Under-23 race that takes place on Friday. There’s an Antipodean feel to the favourites, with Australia’s Matt Hauser and Brandon Copeland, and New Zealand’s defending champion Tayler Reid all in contention. Dijkstra is the best ranked of the GB triathletes and teamed up with Yee, Sophie Coldwell and Georgia Taylor-Brown as part of a winning quartet in the World Triathlon mixed relay series in Nottingham in June in a race that was turned into a duathlon.
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Marcus Dey and Toby Osman will contest the junior men’s event, a title that was won by Alistair Brownlee in Lausanne 13 years ago.
Vincent Luis’ decision to miss the Tokyo test event to focus on the Grand final was vindicated today as he lifted the 2019 series’ winner’s trophy after a textbook race in the Swiss town of Lausanne.
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It was Luis’ title to lose heading into the final round of the 2019 World Triathlon Series, after racking up five top-five finishes and one sixth in six races and needing a top-five finish in the final race. Contenders to his throne included the reigning champion Mario Mola, five-time world champion Javier Gomez, Fernando Alarza, Australia’s Jake Birtwhistle and Belgium’s Marten van Riel. And they, along with a punishing Swiss course, a gutsy Norwegian and temperatures in the high 20s, would make him work for it.
Knowing he was in a strong position, Luis played a relatively safe race. Mere seconds separated him and swim supremo Henri Schoeman after the two-lap 1.5km swim, guaranteeing him a place in the front pack alongside GB’s Jonny Brownlee, Gomez, Alarza and Birtwhistle. Mola had a sub-par swim to just miss the first pack, but by the start of the second lap of seven had brought the chase group up to make a large lead pack of 23.
Three laps in and the break to the chase group, which included GB’s Alex Yee, was one minute. Keen to start a break up front, meanwhile, was Brownlee, who could be seen trying to ‘rally the troops’, to put it diplomatically, in scenes reminiscent of his older brother. But he wasn’t there with 12km left when a small breakaway of four, including the strong Norwegian biking duo of Casper Stornes and Kristian Blummenfelt, took the limelight, albeit briefly.
Luis kept his nose clean throughout the 40km bike leg, sitting in but keeping a close eye on his main title threats for any sudden breaks off the front. With one lap to go, the chase group, unable to find a productive rhythm, was 2mins down.
Brownlee was seen dropping his bike on the way into T2, to leave second last from the lead pack. Up front it was Blummenfelt who took to the front, with Mola, Luis, Gomez, Alarza, Stornes and Gustav Iden (NOR) snapping at his heels. One lap completed and they’d reeled him in to make a lead group of six. Stornes was the first to drop, followed by Gomez, as Mola upped the pace. Iden and Alarza were the next to go with 5.5km to go. Blummenfelt, with a sniff at his first WTS win, took it up a notch again to lead the race, leaving training partners Mola and Luis to race shoulder to shoulder.
Blummenfelt never looked back, to take his first-ever WTS win in emphatic style after 1:50:47 and a 30:46min 10km. Next through was Mola, followed by Alarza and Iden who capitalised on a slowing Luis. But fifth was all Luis had to do take the title, to finish a day of ‘just-enoughs’ for the Frenchman. Gomez took sixth, Stornes seventh, Brownlee eighth, Yee 13th (with the third-fastest run of the day of 31:12).
In the title standings, Mola finished the year runner-up and Gomez third.
America’s Katie Zaferes rocked up in Lausanne battled-scarred after hitting a crash barrier in the Tokyo test event just two weeks earlier. But the 30-year-old American was in a powerful position heading into the Grand Final, needing a 12thplace finish or better to take her first world title.
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Her title chase started well, with a decent swim some 17secs behind GB’s Jess Learmonth, who was second in the standings. While Learmonth shot off down the road on a one-woman mission post-T1, Zaferes was able to catch the main chase group and sit in with GB’s Georgia Taylor-Brown (third in the standings pre-race) and Sophie Coldwell, Flora Duffy (first in the test event), Taylor Spivey (USA, 4thin the standings) and Vittoria Lopes (BRA, 4thin the test event). Nine kilometres in and they’d met up with Learmonth to form a lead group of seven.
London 2012 victor, Rio silver medallist, mother of three and all-round Swiss heroine Nicola Spirig was also towing the line in her home country, but a 52sec swim deficit saw her head up the chase group for almost the entirety of the 40km bike leg. Joining her were GB’s Non Stanford (fifth in the standings) and reigning world champion Vicky Holland.
Halfway through and Spivey and Coldwell were dropped by the lead group, while Holland and Stanford dropped back from the chase pack, which was now some 47secs down.
With one lap to go, Duffy finally made the break she’d been hinting at all race… but it lasted all 500m before Zaferes bridged the small deficit to set the race up for a 10km showdown.
Out of T2 and Lopes was the first to succumb to the pace up front as the leading quartet started the run running in a diamond formation. In scenes reminiscent of last year’s Worlds in New Zealand, where Zaferes was kept honest by Holland, who ultimately took the title, the American was once again joined by a British contingent, as Duffy started to drop back.
With 6km to go, the trio were running shoulder to shoulder, all three looking strong and none of them giving an inch. Dutch athlete Rachel Klamer, meanwhile, who had spent the entire race in the chase group, passed Duffy for fourth at the end of the third lap of four.
Twelve-hundred metres to go and Taylor-Brown just started to drop back, leaving Zaferes and Learmonth to duke it out for the top podium spot. But finally able to put some daylight between her and Learmonth, Zaferes broke the tape to take the race and the title win. Taylor-Brown crossed the line for third, to keep the race and title top three the same.
Spirig crossed the line in 10thto the delight of the home crowd.
Lucy Charles-Barclay will try to finally turn the tables on a dominant Daniela Ryf by winning a first Ironman 70.3 world title – and put down a marker for the Ironman World Championship next month in Hawaii.
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The London triathlete has arrived on the Cote d’Azur fit and healthy after an unbeaten season that has seen her victorious in Ironman South Africa, Challenge Roth, and the Challenge Championship for a third consecutive year over the same distance course as they will race in Nice.
But that is about the only similarity between the event in Samorin with its pan-flat bike course and the testing challenge in the south of France that sees a hilly test on a bike leg that summits the 962m Col de Vence.
It won’t be the course or conditions that pose the most threat to Charles-Barclay’s chances though, but the opposition, chiefly Ryf, who has won four of the past five 70.3 world titles to sit alongside four consecutive Kona crowns.
Unsurprisingly the Swiss has been in winning form again this season, with Ironman victories in Austria and Texas, and 70.3 success in Oceanside, USA and Rapperswil, Switzerland. She was also first across the line in the Alpe d’Huez long course race, showing she’s no slouch when it comes to climbing mountains.
Ryf and Charles-Barclay reached T2 together last year in Port Elizabeth, South Africa before Ryf asserted her dominance and pulled clear on the run. But while Charles-Barclay is yet to gain the upper hand, another Brit, who trains out of California, does know what it takes to beat Ryf.
Holly Lawrence was a surprise world champion in Mooloolaba on Australia’s Sunshine Coast when she triumphed in 2016, as Ryf had a rare misfire and finished fourth. And while injury plagued the 29-year-old in the aftermath, this year she has returned to her best with four victories, including the Ironman European and North American 70.3 titles in Elsinore, Denmark and St George, Utah, where she broke the course record. Lawrence’s only defeat was at the hands of Ryf in Oceanside where she ceded over 5mins on the 90km bike leg.
It’s again likely to be the bike leg where the damage is done and staying in contention for as long as possible will be the goal of all 63 listed starters as the field rivals the males’ as being one of the most competitive in the event’s 14-year history.
Brazil’s Pamella Oliveira and the Czech Republic’s Radka Kahlefeldt will be hoping to dislodge the top three from the podium. The two finished fourth and fifth respectively in South Africa last year, but will need to have improved significantly to be a threat.
Other names to watch for are Australian Sarah Crowley, fourth in Kona last year, London 2012 Olympic silver medallist Lisa Norden of Sweden, and her fellow short-course veteran and three-time Olympian Barbara Riveros of Chile.
Just as with the men’s race, the Brits are well represented too, with six of the seven women having at least one Ironman 70.3 title to their name.
Charles-Barclay and Lawrence will be joined by Emma Pallant, who took silver to Ryf in 2017 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Fenella Langridge, who won Edinburgh 70.3 last year.
Also on the start-list are Frankie Sanjana, who is based in Holland and won her first 70.3 title, Les Sables d’Olonne, in June, and India Lee, who won a second 70.3 title in Finland in the same month having stepped up from standard distance racing.
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Finally, while Katrina Rye, who was awarded a pro licence in May and may not yet have a 70.3 gold, she came close in finishing runner-up to Lee in Finland and has since been crowned ETU Middle Distance Triathlon champion in Târgu Mures.
Alistair Brownlee will start in Nice on Sunday knowing that he needs to be on top of his game if he’s to become the first British male to win the Ironman 70.3 world title.
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Simon Lessing, Andrew Johns, Tim Don twice, and Brownlee make up a ‘who’s who’ of British tri talent to have made the podium in the 70.3 worlds without reaching the top step.
But to achieve the feat on the Côte d’Azur, the 31-year-old Yorkshireman must defeat one of the strongest fields ever assembled that includes many of the world’s best over all distances.
That list is headed by Brownlee’s long-time nemesis Javier Gomez, a five-time short course world champion and twice 70.3 victor. Then there is the Norwegian duo Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, who hold the fastest times ever recorded at the distance, with Blummenfelt stopping the clock at 3:29:04 in Bahrain in December, with Iden just 21sec behind.
Current champion Jan Frodeno has opted to sit out to concentrate fully on Hawaii, but German representation is still strong, with top billing going to Sebastian Kienle and Patrick Lange. Kienle is the 2012 and 2013 70.3 world champion and underlined his prowess at the middle distance by winning the Challenge Championship in Slovakia in June. Lange has won the past two Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, producing the fastest marathon split each time.
Brownlee looked in solid form in winning Ironman 70.3 Dun Laoghaire on the east coast of Ireland last month by 10mins and the testing course in southern France, where the bike leg rises from the shores of the Mediterranean to 962m altitude, should suit his talents.
He’s also not short of motivation and will want to go one better than last year when he finished second to Frodeno in Port Elizabeth in South Africa, where a 67min half-marathon still wasn’t enough for victory having reached T2 with Gomez and the German for company.
Although Brownlee has also qualified for the Ironman World Championship via a debut victory in Youghal in southern Ireland, he’s been clear in stating that 2019 in Hawaii will primarily be a learning experience, and it is the 70.3 crown that is his priority for the season.
If he needs positive omens, he could point to Blummenfelt, Iden and Gomez all having raced on a tough course in Lausanne in the World Triathlon Series Grand Final on Saturday. But if the trio are jaded from those endeavours, the contest also underlined they are in imperious form, especially the Norwegians, with Blummenfelt running to a maiden WTS victory and Iden finishing fourth.
In a 67-strong field of professional men, the threat isn’t restricted to those highlighted above. Like last year, Ben Kanute will try to establish himself at the front of the race from the start. The American’s aggressive style aligns with Brownlee’s in trying to break from the main pack, but although finishing fourth last year, Kanute lacks the running pedigree of Brownlee, Gomez or Blummenfelt.
Another American, Rodolophe von Berg, is a dark horse having beaten Gomez in the Ironman 70.3 European Championship in Denmark in June, thanks largely to a race-best 2:01:36 bike split. And a third USA star, Andrew Starykowicz, jumps out as one who refuses to hold back on the bike. Starykowicz is also the current Ironman bike split record holder and will place great stock in reaching T2 first.
Belgian’s Pieter Heemeryck should not be counted out either. He was fifth in 2018 and split the podium of Kienle and Von Berg to take silver in the Challenge Championship in Samorin this year, where he out-biked them both. But was still slower than Germany’s Andreas Dreitz, an Erdinger team-mate of Lange’s, who also lines up in Nice and can rival any of the field for pedal power.
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There are also five other British contenders who will be battling for a top 10 finish, including Adam Bowden, who was seventh last year and third behind Brownlee in Dun Laoghaire, Elliot Smales runner-up in Dun Laoghaire, George Goodwin, who set a course record in winning Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire this year, Thomas Davis, coming off a recent seventh place in Poland, and Sam Pictor, who’s on the start list despite suffering a broken wrist and dislocated elbow in a bike crash during the Staffordshire race.
Switzerland’s Daniela Ryf claimed a fifth Ironman 70.3 title in six years, beating Britain’s Holly Lawrence into second, with Lucy Charles-Barclay having to settle for fifth after receiving a 5min drafting penalty on the bike.
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Ryf, 32, who has also won the past four Ironman world titles in Hawaii, used the descent from the Maritime Alps’ Col de Vence in the second half of the bike leg to do the damage, opening a 2min gap on her rivals that she extended over the half-marathon for a comprehensive 3:58 victory margin.
Lawrence, the 2016 world champion in Mooloolaba who has recovered from a foot injury that plagued her throughout 2017 and 2018, looked strong throughout and pulled clear of Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds at the start of the run to secure a runner-up berth.
“If you’d have told me this time last year that this would happen, when I was in the worst state of my life with a broken foot in a boot, and it really looked grim… I am just so happy,” she said.
“Daniela was class out there. Descending [on the bike] I was worried about and I lost time, but it was so much better than I thought it would be. The last three miles were so hard on the run. I was closing my eyes at times trying to relax. Next year I’ll definitely be back and who knows, maybe even Kona.”
Simmonds held on for third, with USA’s world championship debutant Chelsea Sodaro running through for fourth, ahead of Charles-Barclay. Emma Pallant, runner-up in 2017, ran up to ninth and India Lee held on for 11th, meaning four of the seven British women starters made the top 11.
In the 1.9km non-wetsuit swim off the Cote d’Azur, there was little surprise that Charles-Barclay, second in both the Ironman 70.3 and Ironman world championships last year, set the early pace.
Despite her minute lead being whittled away in T1, she still led for the opening 12km of the bike leg that weaved through the outskirts of Nice before embarking on the major climb, the Col de Vence.
It was Lawrence who then became the main aggressor, and with Ryf for company, surged to the front in the foothills of the ascent. London 2012 Olympians Paula Findlay and Lisa Norden were also still in contention, but it was New Zealand’s Amelia Watkinson — a six-time 70.3 champion — who next seized the initiative to punch her way to the lead and open almost a minute’s gap by the summit.
Approaching halfway on the 90km bike leg, there was a race-defining twist for Charles-Barclay, as she picked up a blue card and 5min penalty for drafting. Ryf then took charge on the descent and quickly reeled in Watkinson before using her superior bike-handling skills to open a gap.
By the time Ryf reached T2 with a race-best bike split of 2:33:38, she was 2:35 ahead of Lawrence and Simmonds, with Watkinson 4:18 back, Norden 6:34 in arrears and Charles-Barclay fighting back to sixth but 7:11 behind the leader and out of contention for victory. The best of the other Brits was Bath-based Lee, who’d slipped to 8:36 behind in 10th.
Ryf always looked in control over the half-marathon that traversed the Promenade des Anglais, and while the gap narrowed by a few seconds as Lawrence struck out purposefully from transition, by halfway on the run it was widening once more.
The Swiss looked more comfortable the longer she went and used much of the final kilometre to high-five fans lining the course as she continued her stranglehold on women’s long course racing.
“I don’t think it matters how many titles you have, it’s races like today that matter,” she said. “I had a fantastic swim and came out with 10 other girls. Everyone was pushing hard and in the end I was happy to make a little gap on the downhill.
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“You needed a lot of skills today on the bike and on the run Holly was pushing hard. I was pushed to my maximum, but that’s what world championships are about.”
Norway’s Gustav Iden thwarted the dream of Britain’s Alistair Brownlee to win a first Ironman 70.3 world title in Nice.
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Yorkshire’s two-time Olympian, 31, had prioritised the race after finishing runner-up to Jan Frodeno last year in South Africa.
But while he was in the leading trio coming off the bike, he proved no match for the foot-speed of Iden in the half-marathon along the Promenade des Anglais, as the 23-year-old Norwegian displaced 2008 winner Terenzo Bozzone as the 70.3 distance’s youngest world champion.
Iden stopped the clock at 3:52:35 with Brownlee 2:43 behind in second, a further 86sec clear of local favourite Rudy von Berg, who grew up in the region but represents USA.
Last weekend’s World Triathlon Series Grand Final winner Kristian Blummenfelt was fourth, ahead of two-time 70.3 champion, Sebastian Kienle, Bart Aernouts and Spain’s multiple world champion Javier Gomez.
Britain’s George Goodwin, the Ironman Staffordshire 70.3 winner, also produced a noteworthy performance in only his second season as a professional, as he moved through the field on the bike to eventually finish 12th.
“The swim was good and out on the bike I was on my own early doors giving it everything,” Brownlee said. “I got caught by Rudy and Gustav a couple of Ks down the descent [on the bike] and I felt good [on the run] for three or four Ks, but by 5km that was it, I was ready to finish. I don’t know what happened, maybe I pushed it too hard on the bike, or the heat, or whatever. I’m a bit disappointed but held on for dear life.
“I knew Gustav would run well. I’d been running well in training and was in shape to run a really quick half-marathon, but didn’t have the legs. I’ve trained hard for this and will try and put it all into Kona now and see how it goes.”
Iden’s race-best 1:08:10 half-marathon against Brownlee’s 1:10:43 proved the difference, but while the Norwegian may not have enjoyed the highest profile in the lead-up to the event, his performance should raise few eyebrows.
He already holds the second fastest time ever over the distance (3:29:25), which he set in Bahrain in December in finishing runner-up to Blummenfelt in an all-Norwegian podium, and had already won a 70.3 title in Norway as a 20-year-old in 2016.
He has also enjoyed his best year summer of short course racing in 2019, coming fresh from a fourth place finish in Lausanne in the World Triathlon Series Grand Final that backed up the same result in the Tokyo Olympic test event a fortnight earlier. Iden also made the podium in the WTS Bermuda for a second consecutive year in April.
Despite the victory, which also stood out for Iden riding a road bike as opposed to the more popular time-trial alternative, the Norwegian stressed his immediate future lies very much over the shorter distance,
“It’s still the Olympics I’m going for,” he said. “It’s the ultimate thing you can do in sports. I’d love to do more long distance and a full Ironman, but now I have to go for what matters the most and that’s the Olympics. I would love to do Kona one day, though.”
Asked about his choice of bike which, despite the hilly course that wended into the Maritime Alps, bucked the trend of the rest of the field, he said: “I think a TT bike would be faster, but I don’t really have any sponsors for a suitable TT bike. Well, I have a TT bike, but it’s without brakes, so probably a good job I used a road bike.”
Australian Josh Amberger led out the 50-strong starting field in the 25.6 degree waters off the Cote d’Azur with Brownlee tucking into his slipstream and Blummenfelt, Gomez, Von Berg and Britain’s Adam Bowden all in close contention.
Amberger was back on the beach just 23:15 later, with the pace proving too hot for Ironman world champion Patrick Lange, who was 76sec adrift, and Kienle, at almost 4mins back.
From there Brownlee took control and burst quickly to the front of the 90km ride with American Ben Kanute for company as the duo whipped through the streets of Nice before commencing the assault on the Col de Vence.
Australian Sam Appleton, a 13-time 70.3 winner, pushed himself into the mix, but last year’s third-placed finisher and one of the pre-race favourites Gomez was among those struggling to live with Brownlee’s climbing prowess.
With a total vertical ascent of 1,367m the field was being splintered, but it was Iden, who looked to be showing no ill-effects from his previous weekend’s endeavours, who came past Kanute into second.
Brownlee passed the halfway mark and led over the top of the climb, but Von Berg swept past the two-time Olympic champion on the descent. As they headed back into Nice for the final 10km of the bike, Von Berg, Brownlee and Iden had opened a 3min gap on Kanute, with Blummefelt 4.22 behind and the big biking American Andrew Starykowicz muscling himself into sixth.
The first three all clocked 2:17 bike splits, and with the best of those chasing, Bart Aernouts and Sebastian Kienle, only mustering 2:19, the podium looked settled saving calamity for one of the leaders.
Brownlee took his time in T2, before starting the run at a high cadence and taking the lead, but as soon as Iden brushed past the gap opened, and the result didn’t look in doubt.
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Elliot Smales in 20th, finished one place ahead of Bowden, with Sam Pictor in 25th and Thomas Davis rounding out the Brits in 30th.
Representative age-group racing should be celebrated as a great triathlon success story – at its best when those new to the sport realise they have a talent for swim, bike and run and find a route to sporting achievement. With the categories topping out with the 85-89-year-old age-group in last year’s ITU world champs on Gold Coast, it clearly provides invigorating competition, irrespective of age.
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It should therefore retain athletes in triathlon for longer, and create camaraderie and a sense of pride in flying the nation’s flag.
Yet its governance is one of the sport’s most thorny issues, and while occasional gripes are unavoidable, sometimes decisions really raise hackles. Such was the case when British Triathlon decreed that age-group competitors wanting to represent in 2019 must buy the latest kit, going against a ruling from the ITU that previous years’ race uniforms would suffice.
It effectively strong-arms qualifiers into forking out upwards of £120 for a new tri-suit, on top of up to £320 for a standard-distance entry, plus a £20 international race fee and minimum £36 British Triathlon membership. That’s before travel and accommodation.
It’s not simply the extra cost, but the impression that a loyal and captivated audience is being exploited. The flames are further fanned because, unlike when taking part in Ironman, a private company known for its aggressive for-profit stance, athletes feel they’re being screwed over by their national governing body – the organisation that should have their backs.
Discussing age-group racing is divisive. Past columns on this subject have been met with a backlash for decrying the achievements of triathletes who work hard to qualify. On the contrary, I salute any athlete who makes the start line, be it aquathlon, duathlon or triathlon. The supporting personnel for the GB age-group team also regularly receive glowing reviews.
But to whitewash the current structure as fit for purpose belies the feeling of many who enter in good faith but become disillusioned with the system. It doesn’t help that few nations put as much stock in age-group racing as Britain, which means events look lopsidedly stuffed with competitors wearing the Union Jack. Look up past world and European races and the individual achievement of securing a qualifying berth is undermined by an excess of British athletes on the start list.
Despite the high fees, British Triathlon says it makes little profit from this venture and admits it’s a problem that needs addressing. Perhaps the finances simply don’t add up and age-group racing relies on heavy British involvement to function, but it’s time to take stock.
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A representative team should reward high-achieving amateurs and make wearing the GB colours something to aspire to. There needs to be fewer racing and more financial support given. Or that mandatory tri-suit you’ve been forced to buy will be all sheen without substance.