Rachel Klamer Has Breakthrough Race in Abu Dhabi
Starting off the year making the history books, Rachel Klamer (NED) became the 21st woman to ever win an ITU World Triathlon Series race.
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Starting off the year making the history books, Rachel Klamer (NED) became the 21st woman to ever win an ITU World Triathlon Series race after her season-opening victory at the 2018 ITU World Triathlon Abu Dhabi. Read the recap from Triathlon.org below:
After a smart and conservative race strategy that brought her through the swim and bike, Klamer gave everything she has on the final lap of the run to earn the gold medal and the first WTS victory of her career.
“I am so happy, there was no way I was expecting this. I have to say I was quite scared on the bike because the last few months I have been training on only straight roads and didn’t do any corners. There was a lot of women crashing so I just decided to take it easy, ride hard, but just go easy through the corners. I ended up sitting behind a couple crashes, which wasn’t smart so I had to chase one whole lap to get back to the front pack. But I am happy I stayed on my bike. When we started running I tried to focus on my breathing because normally at the start of the season I often get side stitches. I stayed at the back of the back on the first lap, but on the last lap I thought I would just give it a try,” said Klamer.
The silver medal went to Great Britain’s Jessica Learmonth, who added another silver medal to her belt after taking second in Stockholm last year. The medal gives the Brit good standing going into her last month of training before the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast in April.
“With it being the first race I thought, well if I have a bad race at least I have a month until to try and recover for the Commonwealth Games. Likewise, I have always done well here, but we still have a month to go and I have a lot of training to prep for it, but it gives me a bit of confidence and we will see what it brings,” Learmonth said.
Third place went to Aussie Natalie Van Coevorden, who earned her first-career WTS medal from a close photo finish at the line.
Read more: Triathlon.org
2018 ITU WTS Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, UAE – March 2, 2018
750m swim, 20K bike, 5K run
1. Rachel Klamer (NED) 1:00:43
2. Jessica Learmonth (GBR) 1:00:57
3. Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS) 1:01:00
4. Kirsten Kasper (USA) 1:01:01
5. Melanie Santos (POR) 1:01:24
6. Laura Lindemann (GER) 1:01:39
7. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 1:01:40
8. Yuka Sato (JPN) 1:01:41
9. Leonie Periault (FRA) 1:01:42
10. Lotte Miller (NOR) 1:01:50