NEWS

Fumika Matsumoto wins Japan’s first ITU World Championship in 2012 Junior Women’s Race

By Merryn Sherwood | 21 Oct, 2012
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Highlights of the 2012 Junior Women Race in Auckland

The day of World Championship races opened with a bit of triathlon history and a tale of redemption for Japan’s Fumika Matsumoto.  The pint-size junior dominated torrid conditions to claim her place in history in Auckland on Sunday, pulling away at the top of the finishing straight to claim the 2012 ITU Triathlon Junior World Championship.

Matsumoto surged ahead of France’s Leonie Periault and the USA’s Tamara Gordon with less than 100 metres left to become the first Japanese ITU World Champion across the elite, U23 and junior levels.

Matsumoto said afterwards she was driven by a poor performance in the same race at the world championships in Beijing last year, where she was lapped and failed to finish.

“I can’t believe it, I’m so happy,” she said. “Last year in Beijing I was very very disappointed, and I worked very hard for the past year to avenge last year and I did my best today.”

The day started with another wetsuit swim, and the Netherlands’ Maya Kingma exited the water first and formed a small breakaway with Portugal’s Luisa Condeso, Russia’s Anastasia Gorbunova and Gorman.

But a group led by defending junior world champion Mikayla Nielsen (NZL) and that included Sophie Coldwell (GBR), Maddie Dillon (NZL), Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), Matsumoto and Periault helped reel them in and form a big lead pack of 23 at the end of the first lap.

But with the pace increasing at the front, that group shrunk to 16 by the halfway mark of the 20km bike, as Canada’s Amelie Kretz, Germany’s Sarah Wilm and Suse Werner and Matsumoto all took turns at the front to put time on the chase.

That group stayed intact until the start of the run which set up an impressive battle, given it contained five 2012 junior continental championship medallists and the defending champion in Nielsen. But Nielsen fell off the pace and eventually did not finish, and instead it was Gorman, Wilm, Dillon, Periault and Matsumoto who quickly assumed the lead.

At the start of the second 2.5km lap Dillon made a break and managed to stay a few metres ahead of the pack before Periault reeled the Kiwi back in with just one kilometre to go, bringing the other four back with her.

In the final few hundred metres it was the 2012 Asian junior women’s champion Matsumoto who showed her strength, easily striding away from the field to her and Japan’s first world title. Strong runs turned out to be the biggest asset of the day, as the three medallists also recorded the three fastest run splits for the day.

Related Event: 2012 Barfoot and Thompson World Triathlon Grand Final Auckland
20 - Oct, 2012 • event pageall results
Results: Elite Men
1. Javier Gomez Noya ESP 02:00:29
2. Jonathan Brownlee GBR 02:00:31
3. Sven Riederer SUI 02:01:18
4. Steffen Justus GER 02:01:40
5. Gregor Buchholz GER 02:01:46
DNF. Jarrod Shoemaker USA DNF
DNF. Harunobu Sato JPN DNF
DNF. Sergio Sarmiento MEX DNF
DNF. Simon De Cuyper BEL DNF
DNF. Alexander Bryukhankov RUS DNF
Results: Elite Women
DNF. Erin Densham AUS DNF
DNF. Anja Dittmer GER DNF
DNF. Margit Vanek HUN DNF
DNF. Kiyomi Niwata JPN DNF
DNF. Carole Peon FRA DNF
DNF. Irina Abysova RUS DNF
DNF. Ricarda Lisk GER DNF
DNF. Hideko Kikuchi JPN DNF
DNF. Aileen Reid IRL DNF
DNF. Katrien Verstuyft BEL DNF
Results: U23 Men
DNF. Hans Korman EST DNF
DNF. Uxio Abuin Ares ESP DNF
DNF. Flávio Queiroga BRA DNF
DNF. Ron Darmon ISR DNF
DNF. Matheus Diniz BRA DNF
DNF. Fabian Flores GUA DNF
DNF. Alexander Hinton CAN DNF
DNF. Nikko Huelgas PHI DNF
DNF. Shogo Ishitsuka JPN DNF
DNF. Marco Van Der Stel NED DNF
Results: U23 Women
1. Non Stanford GBR 02:13:06
2. Sarissa De Vries NED 02:13:15
3. Joanna Brown CAN 02:14:12
4. Claudia Rivas MEX 02:14:26
5. Natalie Van Coevorden AUS 02:14:28
6. Sara Vilic AUT 02:15:06
7. Ashlee Bailie AUS 02:15:09
DNF. Arina Shulgina KAZ DNF
DNF. Kaitlin Donner USA DNF
DNF. Fanny Beisaron ISR DNF
Results: Junior Men
DSQ. Dmitry Baruzdin RUS DSQ
DNF. Alexis Lepage CAN DNF
DNF. Shichao An CHN DNF
DNF. Adrien Briffod SUI DNF
DNF. Bob Haller LUX DNF
DNF. Jeffrey Tang Ho Fai HKG DNF
DNF. William Huffman USA DNF
DNF. Anton Portnyagin KAZ DNF
DNF. Delian Stateff ITA DNF
DNF. Isikeli Rawlinson FIJ DNF
Results: Junior Women
DNF. Ivana Kuriackova SVK DNF
DNF. Andrea Nazareth Arenas Toloza VEN DNF
DNF. Mikayla Nielsen NZL DNF
DNF. Maria Cristina Farez Pucha ECU DNF
DNF. Renáta Fuchs HUN DNF
DNF. Johanna Gartman USA DNF
DNF. Anastasia Gorbunova RUS DNF
DNF. Rafelix Naomi Martinez VEN DNF
DNF. Lisa Schanung ITA DNF
DNF. Steffy Mishel Salazar Perez ECU DNF
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