Lawn prodiums in Texas, Kiwis race well in Holland European Cup race

New Zealand triathlete Joanna Lawn has continued her build up for Hawaii with another strong podium performance, this time at the 70.3 Half Ironman in Lubbock, Texas.

All week before the race temperatures were in the 100 F, however race day was a different story; windy with some gusts up to 65kph on the bike and nice conditions on the run.

The goal for Lawn in a race that replicates conditions at Kona was to race well in the heat but in particular to record a quick bike time as she continues her preparation for October’s World Championship race.

She achieved that by recording the quickest bike split, despite copping a stand down penalty in a race that played out even more difficult than she expected.

"Yes, Lubbock was a lot harder than I had expected, but I was still able to get my bike speed were it needs to be right now, even though my running is not where I would like it to be.

But I have to be patient and leave something else to work on for Kona. I have to focus on different parts of my race, each build up at a time and this weekend it was all about the bike.

Lawn now heads to France where she will spend time at the Tri NZ European training base for her next training block, one that will see a focus on her running.

“I am super excited about doing my next big block of training and focusing on the run in France with the rest of the NZ Triathlon squad. Right now I am also reading a lot of running literature, to get my running brain in the right space. These books are written by some of the greatest runners of all time, with the likes of Moller, Prefontaine, Snell, and Gebrselassie – the greatest. These people know how and when to deliver and cope with the pressure at the same time."

Results: (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile cycle, 13.1 mile run)

1 Mirinda Carfrae AUS 25.21 2:31:58 1:24:14 4:23:28

2 Joanna Zeiger USA 23:03 2:34:59 1:27:05 4:27:29

3 Joanna Lawn NZL 26:26 2:30:11 1:29:18 4:28:23

SCOPES BEST OF THE KIWIS IN HOLLAND EUROPEAN CUP RACE

New Zealand athletes were also to the fore at the latest ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup race in Holten, Holland. The race featured a bevy of Beijing bound athletes and Europeans looking to gain valuable experience on the course for next years European Championships.

Liam Scopes was the best performed with a fifth place finish in the men’s race, finishing less than 30 seconds behind the winner Jonathan Zipf (GER) in a closely contested race with the top ten split by just over one minute.

Fellow Kiwis Graham O’Grady and Tony Dodds were first out of the water and held on for a top twenty results, with Dodds in ninth just behind Martin Van Barneveld and O’Grady not far back in 12th.

Taryn McLeod continued her steady comeback from an illness and injury plagued 2007 with a top ten finish while Kelly Bruce finished in 19th place.

Conditions were wet on the day leading to the technical bike course through the town centre being very slippery and causing a number of crashes. Scopes was feeling the effects of his race at Schliersee last weekend but was thrilled with his best ever European Cup result.

“After struggling a little on the swim but recovering well on the bike it took my legs a while to get into good running mode, but once that happened I was able to make my way back through the field, at one stage running into third position.

“Over the final lap of four however, I was caught from behind by Russian Sergey Yakovlev, and Kazikstani Dmitry Gaag. It was left to a sprint finish between me and Gaag, a former World Champion. My legs were cramping and didn't have much spring, so I tried to run the sprint out of him over the final kilometre by keeping the pace high and surging a few times, but I couldn't drop him and he eventually kicked past me in the final 100m, beating me by 3secs.

“I was very pleased though, having my best ever European Cup result, and backing up my good race from last weekend (16th at Schliersee).”

2008 Holten ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup, Netherlands

1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run

Elite Women – Official Results

1 Radka Vodickova, CZE 02:03:57
2 Joelle Franzmann, GER 02:04:27
3 Vendula Frintova, CZE 02:04:39
4 Ewa Dederko, POL 02:04:58
5 Anina Stampfli, SUI 02:05:22
Plus NZers

10 Taryn Mcleod, NZL 02:07:17
19 Kelly Bruce, NZL 2:13:09

2008 Holten ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup, Netherlands
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Elite Men – Official Results
1 Jonathan Zipf, GER 01:52:36
2 Sergey Yakovlev, RUS 01:52:55
3 Youri Severin, NED 01:52:59
4 Dimitry Gaag, KAZ 01:53:02
5 Liam Scopes, NZL 01:53:05
Plus other NZers

8 Van Barneveld, Martin NZL 01:53:36
9 Dodds, Tony NZL 01:53:45
12 Graham O'Grady, NZL 1:54:05

23 Andrew Curtayne, NZL 1:55:03

30 James Elvery, NZL 1:56:01

31 Ben Visser, NZL 1:56:19

37 Caleb Hill, NZL 1:58:33