The Vancouver Sun – August 9, 2011
LONDON – Two-time Olympic medallist Simon Whitfield received another reality check Sunday after a 23rd-place finish in Sunday’s World Championship Series triathlon event at London’s Hyde Park.
The 36-year-old finished with a time of one hour 53 minutes 23 seconds. For the second time in as many races, and also only the second time in more than 10 years, he placed behind another Canadian.
Fellow Victoria resident Kyle Jones finished 19th in a time of 1: 52: 10, a little more than two minutes behind winner Alistair Brownlee of Britain.
“I executed my race, but the level isn’t there. I’m not fast enough right now, so I’ll have to figure out a way to get faster,” Whitfield said.
“It was a very impressive performance by Alistair.”
OLYMPIC PREVIEW
The 60-competitor field began Sunday’s race in bright sunshine but was soon subjected to the powerful, windblown streaks of rain that are infamous of London’s weather.
The race was the final opportunity for athletes to compete on the proposed route that will be used for the Olympics. Athletes have characterized the course as flat and fast.
Competitors dove into Hyde Park’s lake-like Serpentine before mounting their bicycles on a layout that took them into central London, underneath the Wellington Arch and around the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace.
The race concluded by returning to Hyde Park with a four-lap run around the outside of the Serpentine.
‘OLD WOLF’
Whitfield has struggled in competition this year. He finished 30th in Madrid in June and had to withdraw after the bike section of the race in Kitzbuehel, Austria, two weeks later due to illness.
The self-proclaimed “old wolf” is clearly still enjoying himself despite the string of disappointing results which haven’t seen him finish in the top three of a World Cup race in two years.
In a conference call with media earlier in the week, he joked about missing the pressure of his younger days and asked reporters to dub him “Simon Whitfield: gold-medal favourite” in advance of the London Olympics next year.
Whitfield said that keeping things fun and different is part of what has made him successful in the sport.
“I certainly have a certain sense of play to it,” he said. “But that’s built into probably why I can do [triathlon] so long and I still love doing it at this advanced age.”
At 25, Whitfield boosted his sport’s visibility in Canada after capturing the first gold medal ever awarded for triathlon at the 2000 Olympics. After finishing a disappointing 11th at the 2004 Athens Olympics, he rebounded to win the silver medal at the 2008 Games in Beijing.
As originally published in The Vancouver Sun