Findlay Claims first Major Win for Canada in 2010!

Edmonton native Paula Findlay made a big push for her bid to the 2012 Olympics this year by taking the women’s field at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship London, running away with the win in 1:51:48. Findlay broke away on the final lap of the run for her first-ever World Championship Series start, who recently won her first ITU World Cup race in Monterrey, Mexico this April.

“I absolutely can’t believe this,” Findlay commented. “I felt better than ever on the run. I definitely did not expect to win, but I felt so smooth on the first two laps and then just tried to push things on the final lap. This is just crazy—I’m so happy.”

Findlay competed against the one of the strongest fields possible in the pro circuit with Sixty-eight women taking to the Serpentine Lake in world famous Hyde Park to kick off the race under clear skies with an air temperature of 28 degrees Celsius.

After just over 19 minutes in the Serpentine, Bennett led into T1, with Haskins, Moffatt and Hewitt only seconds behind. The top swimmers were unable to force a break early on the bike, and a group of 24 women came together on the first of eight bike laps around Hyde Park. 

A group of runners (Hewitt, Findlay, Spirig, and Jenkins) made take charge of the run, moving to the front at the start of the three lap run.  As the top four started the third and final lap, Findlay moved to the front and slowly turned up the tempo as the rest of the leaders struggled to stay with her.

“Running with a group of four is always hard, because there’s only three spots on the podium,” Findlay said. “At that point in the race I was just hoping for a podium spot. Then I looked back and saw I had a little gap and just ran my heart out.”

One by one the rest of the women fell off Findlay’s pace, and with 800 metres to go, it was clear that the rest of the leaders were running for second. Findlay broke the tape for the biggest win of her career in 1:51:48, with Spirig finishing three seconds later to claim second.

The women will now have a three-week rest before heading to Kitzbühel, Austria for the penultimate stage of the Series on August 14-15.