World duathlon champion and Suunto Ambassador Vendula Frintova (Czech Republic) won the opening World Cup event of the triathlon season in Mooloolaba, Australia on March 28, 2010.
The 33-year-old outran Japan’s Tomoko Sakimoto and Great Britain’s Liz Blatchford, finishing the 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run in 2hr 3min 16sec.
Frintova was 30 seconds behind the leaders after she found herself stuck in a moderately-paced chasing group on the bike leg. However once on foot, she immediately began moving solidly up through the pack.
With two of the four laps completed of the run section, she was still 25 seconds behind a lead group of six, which included Sakimoto and Blatchford.
It was only on the final lap that Frintova managed to catch Sakimoto and Blatchford, who by this time were by themselves at the front. For a brief moment Frintova ran with them, but then quickly surged ahead. She finished her run in a speedy 35min 54sec and 12 seconds ahead of Sakimoto.
“It was a little frustrating riding so slow on the bike,” Frintova said afterward. “But I was comfortable waiting until the run to go.”
Despite numerous top ten finishes in World Championship Series events and regional cup races this was the first World Cup victory for Frintova who uses a Suunto t6c with Foot and Bike PODs during training. She was also a runner-up at the under-23 World Championships in 2004 and 2005.
Image by ITU/ Delly Carr