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Chrissie Wellington - World Champion
 Having
won the ITU World Age Group (amateur) Triathlon Championships over
the standard distance in Switzerland in September 2006,
Chrissie Wellington started 2007 as a professional
triathlete, giving up her job in London to focus on training full
time. She will end 2007 as Britain’s first ever World Ironman
Champion, a remarkable feat, deemed to be a near impossible task for
any athlete racing as a rookie at their first Ironman World
Championships.
Wellington
started her triathlon years having worked on social projects in
Nepal, where she would ride a mountain bike around the outlying
mountain villages at 5000m, leaving male coworkers in her wake. When
she went to New Zealand on holiday she completed the Cross New
Zealand Challenge which involved cycling, swimming and running. From
then on her mind was set on triathlon, and when she returned to the
UK she started training for the World Age Group Triathlon
Championships.
Wellington
had qualified late for the prestigious Ironman World Championships
on the island of Kona, Hawaii, having won the Ironman Korea event
just seven weeks before. Korea had been her first Ironman, and
although she had won by over half an hour against an average field,
nobody could have predicted that she would win in Kona against much
tougher and experienced opposition.
Her race started well, exiting the 2.4 mile swim in
the main pack of athletes, whilst ITU World Long Distance Champion,
Leanda Cave from Louth, was one of the first out of the water and
started to build a lead on the 112 mile bike stage. Further back it
was Wellington who made the headway though as she climbed into the
top three for the first time by mile 95, and then took the lead from
Cave just five miles later.
Starting the final discipline, a gruelling 26.2 mile
marathon, Wellington held a two minute lead over American favourite
Dede Griesbauer, but continued to increase her
advantage in the oppressive conditions. By mile 17 Wellington’s lead
was up to seven minutes, and although the chasing athletes had
started to close, an incredible sub-three hour run split gave her
the win in a time of 9:14:45 ahead of Samantha McGlone,
the 2006 World Half Ironman World Champion, from Canada.
“It’s a dream come true,” Wellington said just after
crossing the line. “I saw Sam[antha McGlone] and I knew I needed to
just keep pushing hard. Some people told me I had a chance, but I
didn’t really believe I could do it. I was praying I could hold on
for the run.”
1. Chrissie Wellington, Great Britain - 9:08:45
From British
Triathlon Website |
