Watch the video highlights from the men’s race
Watch the video highlights from the women’s race
Suunto Ambassador Jan Frodeno (GER) won a thrilling neck and neck finish ahead of Courtney Atkinson (AUS) in round two of the ITU Dextro Energy World Championship Series (WCS) in Seoul, South Korea on May 9. The win was a sweet reward for the German’s excellent early season form after he crashed at the WCS opening round in Sydney one month prior.
Sixty-eight men took to the chilly water of the Han River and it was another Suunto Ambassador, Javier Gomez, who was first out of the water at the first transition, making an impressive start to his first race of the season after recovering from a hip injury.
Gomez’s lead didn’t last for long however and it was Frodeno who then jumped to the front at the start of the 40km bike leg. Frodeno looked to push the pace early on but the group quickly bunched up.
Despite further attempts by Spanish super-biker Ivan Rana and then Mark Fretta (USA) to split up the pack, a large 57-man group entered the last phase with no clear leader.
The run started explosively when Courtney Atkinson (AUS) stormed immediately to the front and opened up a gap of about 10 metres on the group behind him.
Frodeno, who trains with a Suunto t6c coupled with Road Bike and Foot PODs, was the only one able to keep pace with the fast-running Australian and pair finally came together about two kilometres into the 10km run.
“Courtney went out really hard on the run and it was tough to catch up to him out of transition,” Frodeno said. “When I finally did, we started working together very well and were able to build a nice gap on the rest of the guys.”
Atkinson made one final push 80 metres before the line, but Frodeno responded and edged past metres before the finish line in a time of 1hr 51min 49sec. Frodeno and Atkinson even clocked the same time with an amazing 10km run split of 29min 8sec, as recorded by Suunto, who is the official time and data partner for the ITU WCS.
“I just wanted to hold on until the finish line, I had a bit of confidence in my sprint” said Frodeno. “It was a nice long finishing straight which really played into my favour.”
Suunto Athletes Hitting Good Form
Suunto athletes Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) and Brukhankov also performed well in the run and finished fifth and sixth, beating Sydney race winner Bevan Docherty into seventh place.
Showing no effects after recuperating from his hip injury, Gomez will be well satisfied with his return to triathlon after finishing this highly technical course with a very solid run and an overall time of 1hr 53min 14 sec, finishing in 12th.
“We are already thinking of (round three of the WCS in) Madrid. I want to be fit and ready to try to win there. After seven months without racing, it was good to do one race before Madrid.”
In the women’s race, Switzerland’s Daniela Ryf pulled off the sprint of her life to win in the final stretch in the women’s triathlon, topping round one winner Barbara Riveros Diaz of Chile and reigning world champion Emma Moffatt of Australia.
Suunto Ambassador Helen Jenkins was also pleased with her early season fitness, coming ninth in a highly competitive field. The Head Coach of the UK team, Joel Filliol, was satisfied with her time of 2hr 1min 44sec.
"It was encouraging for Jenkins to move on from her season debut in Sydney, and bodes well for her progression towards the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championships, London in July.”
Images by Delly Carr/triathlon.org