NEWS

Viennot & Ellis secure first Long Distance titles

By Erin Greene | 27 Jun, 2015

Cyril Viennot (FRA) and Mary Beth Ellis (USA) executed nearly perfect race plans in Motola, Sweden to score their first ITU Long Distance World Championship titles. The race was contested over a 1.5km swim, which was shortened due to water temperature, a 120km bike and 30km run.

Women’s review
Ellis eliminated any chance for the competition to catch her with a line to line paramount leading performance. The first female competitor out of the water a whopping minute faster than the field, Ellis implemented a plan to surge early on the bike and never looked back.

Click here for full results

On the first of three bike laps she secured nearly a two-minute lead which only continued to swell. While Pedersen kept pace from a distance, the four-minute gap that Ellis had etched out on the bike proved too much for Pedersen to run down despite a valiant first run lap from the Dane.

Over the last two laps, Ellis forged ahead to break the finish tape at 5:24:25, more than seven minutes ahead of Pedersen, who took second.

Sweden’s own Annie Thoren looked threatening until midway through the bike when she was overtaken by Kaisa Lehtonen (FIN). From there, the podium was all but decided as the ladies proved too powerful to be run down, as Lehtonen rounded out the top three in 5:33:41.

Men’s review
Jensen looked poised to complete a similar winning plan as Ellis when he powered away on the bike after exiting as one of the top swimmers behind leaders Joshua Amberger (AUS) and Nikolay Yaroshenko (RUS). 

By the end of the first bike lap, the Swede began to make his move passing Joe Gambles (AUS), Amberger and Ruedi Wild (SUI). His lead only continued to increase from there as he cruised into T2 with nearly four minutes over Viennot, who had broken away from Amberger and Gambles on the final lap.

However, the Frenchman was determined to keep the title in the hands of the French after compatriot Bertrand Billard won the race in 2014 and he went to work whittling the deficit down. Viennot managed to nearly halve the distance from him to Jensen on the first of three run laps.

Viennot continued to close in on Jensen more on each lap, while behind him Wild picked off a struggling Gambles. In the final 10km, Viennot surpassed Jensen and, despite a last ditch surge from Jensen, the Frenchman crossed over the line first at 4:54:33.

Jensen took silver 13 seconds later while Joe Skipper (GBR) scorched through the final run lap to bypass both Wild and Patrik Nilsson for bronze. 

Click here for full results

Related Event: 2015 Motala ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships
27 Jun, 2015 • event pageall results
Results: 18-19 Male AG
1. Tyler Allan AUS 06:00:13
2. Matthew Zupan USA 06:19:07
3. Leo Hassan SWE 06:46:21
Results: 20-24 Female AG
1. Jessica Åhlund SWE 06:35:50
2. Daniela Kaminska POL 06:41:06
3. Hollie Cradduck GBR 07:42:12
4. Emma Näsholm SWE 08:20:02
Results: 20-24 Male AG
1. Nathan Dortmann FRA 05:38:04
2. Martin Fredriksson SWE 05:51:22
3. Gustav Svensson SWE 05:52:40
4. Aled Smith GBR 05:54:35
5. Rob Scothern GBR 05:58:40
6. Teemu Mattila FIN 06:01:52
7. Dennis Andersson SWE 06:07:51
8. Markus Jonsson SWE 06:23:15
9. William Manion USA 06:30:32
10. Ryo Kiguchi JPN 06:31:03
Results: 25-29 Female AG
1. Sara Svensk SWE 06:02:55
2. Jenny Nilsson SWE 06:08:34
3. Kate Comber GBR 06:12:58
4. Mirka Vahtera FIN 06:15:02
5. Susanna Huttunen FIN 06:16:40
6. Sonja Futehally GER 06:28:05
7. Anna Hellström SWE 06:31:39
8. Saga Gullberg SWE 06:32:16
9. Konoka Azumi JPN 06:41:11
10. Sabine Hedlund SWE 06:48:19
Results: 25-29 Male AG
1. Adriel Young AUS 05:24:52
2. Christopher Ashford GBR 05:37:58
3. Georg Gottfried Horner AUT 05:38:50
4. Jeff Nordquist USA 05:43:19
5. Adam Stenman SWE 05:47:55
6. Johan Bornhall SWE 05:49:32
7. Jakob Karlson SWE 05:51:57
8. Martin Olsson SWE 05:52:14
9. Darren Ryan RSA 05:53:21
10. Daniel Jones USA 05:57:51
Results: 30-34 Female AG
1. Cecilia Jessen SWE 06:20:18
2. Julia Montgomery SWE 06:21:27
3. Ngarama Milner-Olsen NZL 06:25:00
4. Karin Magnusson SWE 06:27:11
5. Suvi Tiainen FIN 06:28:39
6. Lina Blomqvist SWE 06:28:46
7. Hanneke Boon NED 06:31:40
8. Marie Sandberg SWE 06:35:54
9. Rebecca Karlsson SWE 06:37:17
10. Sara Hanning NZL 06:47:47