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Sam Warriner Finishes ITU World Cup Season On Top with ‘Fairy Tale Ending’

29 Oct 2008

Americans Jarrod Shoemaker and Sarah Gross took significant career-best second place finishes. With her finish, Gross capped a rising arc in her career with a top American, 4th place finish in the 2008 ITU World Cup series points chase. Groff held off hard-charging Brit Andrea Whitcombe, whose 35:56 was the women’s best run, by 17 seconds.

The hellish 90-plus Fahrenheit temperature and steamy 90 percent humidity, magnified by one of the meanest hills on the ITU circuit, added honor to the victories, slowed the finishing times and decimated the fields. Only 8 of 18 women starters finished, and but 21 of 31 men completed the course.

Gemmell’s finishing time of 2:03:23 was the slowest of the year, roughly 15 minutes slower than the average winning time on the World Cup circuit. Warriner’s 2:14:02 mark the slowest in perhaps a decade. Most of the damage was done on the advertised 40 kilometer bike – with the 1:10:51 by Ethan Brown of the United States the men’s best. Warriner’s 1:16:05 was the women’s best.

Gemmell earned the fourth World Cup victory of his career with a last lap surge at the end of a race long duel with surprisingly tough Jarrod Shoemaker of the United States, who was 9 seconds back at the line.

For the 37-year-old Warriner, the win was her seventh World Cup victory earned by a 43-second margin over surprisingly strong Sarah Groff of the United States. The win finished off Warriner’s year with a bang. After an early World Cup win at Tongyeong, Korea and her finish line sprint edged Aussie Erin Densham for the bronze at the ITU World Championship at Vancouver, Warriner finished a disappointing 16th at the Beijing Olympics. But she closed 3-2-1 with a bronze at Kitzbuhel, a silver at L’Orient, and the gold at Huatulco to definitively outpoint series runner-up Felicity Abram (who was not entered) by 282 to 256.

“This is what I wanted,” said Warriner, who came five points short of second place in last year’s BG World Cup series points race. “This is a fairy tale ending to the year.”

Warriner’s career shows that the speed-burning world of ITU Olympic distance racing isn’t solely a young competitor’s game. She never competed seriously in triathlon as a junior, and her first-ever triathlon in international competition was in the 25-29 age group division at the 2001 ITU World Championship in Edmonton.

Prior to this season, Warriner’s proudest moment came with a second place finish to 2008 Olympic champion and three-time ITU World Champion Emma Snowsill at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Groff’s second place finish in the Huatulco topped her career-best World Cup finishes set this year. Perhaps her top American 4th place finish in the season World Cup series standings will offer her career encouragement after the disappointment of falling a few seconds short of an Olympic slot at the second US Women’s Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa this April.

Groff’s consistent finishes on the 2008 ITU World Cup circuit have marked her as a woman to be watched in 2009. With her career highlight a 5th at the 2007 Edmonton World Cup going into the 2008 season, this year she took a strong 7th at the ITU Worlds in Vancouver, a 9th at Hy-Vee, a 4th at Tiszaujvaros, a 3rd at the US Elite nationals in Portland, another 4th at Lorient, and a rousing first podium in Mexico Sunday.

The men’s final 2008 ITU World Cup series point standings revealed Javier Gomez of Spain, who has been inactive on the World Cup circuit since the Olympics, took the title with 300 points. blueseventy’s Bevan Docherty of New Zealand, the bronze medalist at Beijing, was second with 248 points, with Ivan Vasiliev of Russia third with 224 points.


2008 Huatulco BG Triathlon World Cup
October 26 / Huatulco, Mexico
1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run

Top 10 men

1. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 2:03:23
2. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 2:03:32
3. Laurent Vidal (FRA) 2:04:22
4. Thomas Springer (GER) 2:04:40
5. Leonardo Chacon (CRC) 2:04:47
6. Francisco Serrano (MEX) 2:05:15
7. Michael Raelert (GER) 2:05:22
8. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 2:05:32
9. Matt Chrabot (USA) 2:05:50
10. Tony Moulai (FRA) 2:06:21

Top 8 women

1. Samantha Warriner (NZL) 2:14:02
2. Sarah Groff (USA) 2:14:45
3. Andrea Whitcombe (GBR) 2:15:02
4. Jodie Swallow (GBR) 2:15:17
5. Lisa Norden (SWE) 2:17:23
6. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:17:58
7. Vendula Frintova (CZE) 2:18:54
8. Jillian Petersen (USA) 2:22:21