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Surprise package Whitfield grabs triathlon glory for Canada
SYDNEY, Sept 17 (AFP) - Canadian Simon Whitfield produced a late spurt to snatch a surprise gold medal in the inaugural Olympic men's triathlon here Sunday, overhauling Germany's Stephan Vuckovic in the final moments of a gruelling race. The 25-year-old fast-finisher chased the tiring Vuckovic down in sight of the Opera House and scorched away to win by 13 seconds in 1:47:45 - an exceptional time for this tough Olympic course - with Jan Rehula of the Czech Republic picking up the bronze. The margin of victory was a somewhat false one as once he was beaten Vuckovic slowed down to milk the applause of the German support before crossing the line. Whitfield therefore followed in the footsteps of Switzerland's Brigitte McMahon, an equally unheralded knife-edge winner of the women's race on Saturday. "As I came to the finish I was thinking you've got to want it, you've got to want it, you've got to want it," beamed Whitfield, born in Kingston, Ontario and a resident of Victoria, British Columbia. "Canada had a tough day yesterday and I was thinking what this would do for the rest of the team - the water polo, the hockey and the rowers. "I just thought to myself how much I owed it to Canada to get the gold." And Whitfield's victory was all the more remarkable as he had come off his bike in the middle section. But the man who names as his hero New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary - with Sherpa Tensing one of the first two men to climb Mount Everest - recovered to scale what many consider to be the most daunting pinnacle in sport. Vuckovic, who grabbed a German flag in the home straight and had time to celebrate with the crowd before actually crossing the finishing line, was delighted with his silver medal. "At the start of the run the leaders were very slow and I was able to move up the field - I could not understand why they were so slow," he said. "I had such a bad swim that I thought I was out of the race. I thought to myself forget it, this is not your day." As they began the final discipline - the 10km run - Vuckovic and Whitfield were placed 17th and 24th respectively, more than a minute behind the breakaway leaders, world champion Olivier Marceau of France and South Africa's Conrad Stoltz. At one stage Marceau held a 26-second lead and was still at the front at the start of the last lap but in the gruelling final stages the lead pair faded and were cut down by the fast finishers in the chasing pack. World number one Dmitriy Gaag of Kazahstan finished just out of the medals in fourth place with Ivan Rana of Spain fifth. Diving into the chilly harbour water, Australian Craig Walton hit the front immediately in a bold attempt to stretch the field, opening up a 10-metre lead over the pre-race gold medal favorite Simon Lessing of Great Britain with New Zealand's Hamish Carter, the world number two, also prominent. Divers with electrical shark repellers again rode shotgun to quell any lingering fears of a shark attack as they swam across Farm Cove in choppy conditions far less inviting than those the women encountered a day earlier. Lessing hauled Walton back in the later stages of the 1500m long sector and was right behind the home favorite as they were the first to climb aboard their bikes, in the shadow of the Opera House. The triathlon - a three discipline event with a 1500m swim, a 40km bike ride and a 10m run - is making its bow as an Olympic sport at Sydney.
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