London 2012 Women’s Olympic Triathlon Results and Run Commentary
A fierce battle to the line saw Norden steal gold from Sprig with a photos finish as Britain’s Helen Jenkins slipped to a disappointing fifth place, blaming her knee injury, a lack of run training and a crash by Vicky Holland earlier in the race for her 31 second gap.
Run Commentary
Lucy Jackson, the youngest contender in the field was dropped at the 2.5km mark as Densham pushed the pace and forced the lead group to a pack of six as Jackson.
At the 1:40 mark the lead pack became four as Groff lost contact along with Mura of Spain.
Nordern, Sprig, Densham, Jenkins , Hewit led the race at they passed through transition to start their third lap of the Serpentine.
AS they passed the Dianna memorial Hewit was unable to sustain the pace and the pack became four with Helen Jenkins almost unable to keep track of Densham.
Helen Jenkins finally began to make her move after a swift splash of water but Norden quickly moved to cover the attempted surge as they approached the end of lap number three. Helen is not known for her sprint finish and so looked to be trying to force the pace to escape a last minute dash from Sprig. After several minutes Jenkins was unable to lose the pack and slipped back to fourth, looking tired.
Meanwhile Groff of the USA who had previously dropped off the pace was able to slowly regain her lost 100 years and was almost within touching distance of the lead pack.
Densham made a burst of speed as tey crossed the out and back turn but was quickly covered by Jenkins and Groff. Jenkins slipped back to fifth place as Groff forced her way into fourth place at the last 2km mark.
At the 2km mark Jenkins slipped 2m and dug deep to try and regain contact with the lead group who slowly slipped away as Groff passed her.
The results with 1km to go were
1. Densham
2. Sprig
3. Norden
4. Groff
5. Jenkins
Spirg upped the pact yet again with 500m to go and the pack quickly responded as she kept on accelerating. Spirg surged yet again to start her full on sprint to the finsh with Noredn in second. Norden crept from behind to finish the race shoulder to shoulder as both athletes clooapsed as they crossed the finish line.
Densham finished a close 2 seconds behind the first two with Groff finishing fourth, 10 seconds later
Jenkins finished in a disappointing fifth after losing 31 seconds in the last 1km.
The crowd waited with baited breath as the judges confirmed the photos finish
Helen Jenkins looked to almost break down in her post race interview as she apologized to the crowd and thanked them for their amazing cheering. She said how an injury (knee), Vicky crashing and not enough training was the reason for her lack of pace in the run. She congratulated the top three for their epic battle.
Vicky, Helen and Lucy all looked to be in surprisingly good condition considering their tactic
More details emerged from Vickys crash. As she passed Buckingham palace she was taken out from behind and although she couldn’t take on the lead back she had to stay clear. She was in high spirits, mentioning that she has run faster than she was expecting – pausing to joke about taking in the scenery at Buckingham palace.
Chrissie wellington was amazed at the sprint finish saying that she has never seen anything like that in her career – they don’t have many photo finishes in the 8 hour ironman races!