Snowsill wins Olympic triathlon gold
- 18th August 2008
Emma Snowsill
EMMA Snowsill won Australia’s first Olympic triathlon gold medal today, dominating the race at the Ming Tombs Reservoir, north of Beijing.
Clutching an Australian flag and waving to the crowd, Snowsill won in one hour 58 minutes and 27 seconds.
Her long-time rival Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal was second, a minute and six seconds behind.
Emma Moffatt added to the Australian celebrations when she finished 1:28 behind Snowsill for the bronze medal.
Laura Bennett, who spends half the year in Noosa with her triathlete husband Greg, came in fourth.
There was one moment of confusion for Snowsill when she briefly went off course midway through the run, but otherwise it was a complete performance.
Snowsill was well-placed throughout today’s 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run event, exiting the water only five seconds off the pace.
She was in a lead group of 20 that broke away early and also included Fernandes and fellow Australian Emma Moffatt.
Those leaders had a gap of more than two minutes at the end of the bike.
Snowsill was first onto the run and just kept going, immediately opening up a gap and going away to win.
The third Australian, Erin Densham, finished 32nd.
Snowsill’s husband, former top triathlete Craig Walton, hugged her at the finish line.
Snowsill, 27, has been a star of Olympic-distance triathlon since 2003, when she won her first world title.
She was also world champion in 2005 and ’06, the same year she took out the Commonwealth Games triathlon as well.
Fernandes won her first world title in Hamburg last year and Snowsill was second.
A stress fracture ruined Snowsill’s lead-up to the Athens Olympics, meaning this is her Games debut.
Moffatt, 23, first reached international prominence in 2005 when she finished fifth at the under-23 world titles.
The following year, the Brisbane-based triathlete was second in the same event.
Olympic gold was the one big prize to have eluded Australian triathlon.
Michellie Jones won silver in 2000 and runner-up Loretta Harrop was leading until the last few metres in Athens 2004, when expatriate Kate Allen sprinted past her to claim the gold medal for Austria.
