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Commonwealth Games: England’s Jodie Stimpson takes triathlon gold Commonwealth Games: England’s Jodie Stimpson takes triathlon gold
(about 3 hours later)
England’s Jodie Stimpson won the first gold medal of the Commonwealth Games to banish the pain of missing out on the London Olympics. Jodie Stimpson described missing out on the London Olympics as “the kick up the backside I needed” after winning the first gold of the Commonwealth Games. In a dream start to Team England’s campaign, the 25-year-old sprinted to victory in the triathlon at Strathclyde Country Park while her team-mate Vicky Holland took a surprise bronze behind Canada’s Kirsten Sweetland.
Canada’s Kirsten Sweetland took silver with England’s Vicky Holland making it a dream start for the team by clinching a surprise bronze. Stimpson went into the race as the top-ranked athlete and justified that position with a commanding performance, pulling away from Sweetland over the closing 500 metres. It was all a far cry from 2012, when Stimpson was distraught at being left out of the Olympic team for London, and was one of a number of critics of British Triathlon’s selection policy. Holland and Lucy Hall, who finished 11th in Glasgow, were picked to support the then world champion Helen Jenkins.
The leading group of six began to splinter towards the end of the penultimate lap of the 10km run as Stimpson took the lead. As the contenders fell away, only Holland and Sweetland could stay with her. Stimpson said: “I didn’t meet the criteria for London, so it wasn’t my spot. Obviously, I was devastated to miss a home Olympics. But that gave me the kick up the backside that I needed. I changed coach and it did wonders. Me and Darren Smith have worked so hard ever since. It’s absolutely fantastic. This medal is not just mine, it’s for all my family and friends and Darren. Thank you so much. This medal is yours.”
Holland dropped off a few hundred metres from the line, leaving Stimpson and Sweetland to fight it out. Almost within sight of the line, Stimpson made her break and the 25-year-old from Oldbury in the West Midlands pulled away to take victory. She credits linking up with the renowned Australian as the turning point in her career and her results have certainly taken off. The England trio’s plan had been to make it a hard race over a tough course to try to prevent all the favourites still being there on the run.
Stimpson told the BBC: “It’s just overwhelming. All my family’s here and for them to get to be part of it with me is fantastic. We’re a really close team out there and to get another England girl on the podium is fantastic too. Despite the absence of the Welsh world champion Non Stanford and Jenkins through injury, it was still a strong field. Coming out of the 1.5km swim in Strathclyde Loch, England held the first three positions but their rivals were all there too.
“I was most worried about the swim because I know how strong [England team-mate] Lucy Hall is. If I wasn’t there it was going to be an extremely hard race for me to get there. But I had an awesome swim and the bike was challenging, but it was just trying to be aware really. Hall briefly tried a breakaway on the 40km cycle ride but was pulled back and a group of 10 began the 10km run together. That quickly became six, with Stimpson, Sweetland and Australia’s Emma Jackson pushing the pace while Holland, Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand and Northern Ireland’s Aileen Reid stayed with them.
“The toughest bit was the run. I wanted to go out strong but quickly realised that so did everybody else and they weren’t going to let me run away with it. Reid was the first to crack at the end of the penultimate lap and a kick by Stimpson got rid of the dangerous Jackson and Hewitt, the bronze medallist in 2006. Holland held on until around a kilometre to go, but by then she had secured a medal.
“It was a case of ‘be sensible, keep running strong and see who’s with me on the last half of a lap’. And then at the top of the hill when I started the descent it was, ‘right, let’s give it all I’ve got’, and it came off.” Stimpson, from Oldbury in the West Midlands, proved to be the strongest in the end and did not ease up until she crossed the line. “I wouldn’t say it was comfortable,” she said with a chuckle. “I wanted to run out solid but everybody else was, too.
A battle between England and Wales had been highly anticipated, but injuries to the world champion Non Stanford and Helen Jenkins ended Welsh medal hopes. It was still a strong field, though, with seven of the world’s top 12 this season in action. “I was not expecting that many to stay with us but when it’s a big championships everybody leaves it all out there.
As expected, the England trio pushed the pace on the 1.5km swim in Strathclyde Loch, with Hall coming out of the water first ahead of Holland and Stimpson. “It broke up on the last lap and I thought” ‘Right, this is it, give it all you have got.’ On the final downhill, it was a case of all or nothing. And it paid off.”
They formed a leading group on the bike with Northern Ireland’s Aileen Reid and New Zealand’s Nicky Samuels, but before long the chasers caught up to form a group of 10 that included all the main challengers. Holland, from Gloucester, has never been on the podium in a world series race and declared it the best result of her career. “I’m a bit overwhelmed but that was the top result I could have got,” she said. “I felt in control throughout the run and when my legs started to fail me with about a kilometre to go I must have turned around 15 times to check no one was coming up behind me. It just felt the longest stretch of road in the world.
It stayed that way until the latter stages of the fourth lap, when Hall made her break, and initially she opened up a decent gap, but by the time they finished the 40km ride they were all back together. “It feels very poetic to win the first medals of the Games. You dream about this, and to get a medal with Jodie makes it even more fantastic.”
Holland set out first on the run but Stimpson quickly moved to the front to push the pace and start reducing the pack. Hall, 22, is not a strong runner and was treated in the medical tent at the finish after appearing to overheat on the run.