Snowsill Steals De Moines Purse.

Hy-Vee De Moines Triathlon, Iowa Sunday June 13^th.

Report and Photos from John Coxon

Australia’s diminutive Emma Snowsill, one of the most successful triathletes ever , is back on top (after her hip surgery last November) coming from nowhere in the later stages of the 10K run at De Moines to take Gold and a snatch the purse of $200,000 from some very good company. This race boasted the highest ever triathlon purse with a million dollars split evenly between genders with the first 50 home, and in the end , in the women’s race , everyone bar one, who finished got a share of the pot. It was Emma’s second win here in three years. Severe weather warnings had threatened the race but whilst causing the earlier amateur events to be delayed and shortened to the sprint distance the race went ahead on schedule and conditions set fair but very humid.

Emma spent the bike section in the second chase pack where two Americans, Sarah Mc Larty at the front followed by Hayley Peirsol were well ahead of the lead bike group having emerged from the swim a full minute ahead of the field and they maintained that some 40 seconds lead throughout the bike. Emma ominously lead the second chase pack, knowing she had to catch them to make it a race when the shoes hit the floor after T2 – it had become increasingly obvious on the 40k bike section , with the lead chase pack so close together, that it would all come down to the run, the so called “dash for cash .“ Emma worked hard and had pulled back the gap from 30 seconds to within ten seconds going into to transition for the run. GB’s Jodie Stimpson was ahead out of T1 and was always in the lead pack on the bike but seemed to drop off the pace with three laps to go.