Abu Dhabi hosts first leg of the 2015 International Triathlon Union's series

Gulf News

bu Dhabi hosts first leg of the 2015 International Triathlon Union's series. Amateur and elite triathletes converge in the UAE’s capital for the IPIC World Triathlon Abu Dhabi. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

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00:00The world's top athletes lined up on the Abu Dhabi Corniche on Saturday for the season

00:17opener of the 2015 International Triathlon Union's World Triathlon Series, or WTS.

00:23The event was the first WTS race to be held in the Middle East, reigning world champions

00:28Gwen Jorgensen of the U.S. and Javier Gomez of Spain headlined a stellar field that included

00:34nine of the top ten ranked men and six of the top ten ranked women in the world.

00:41Starting from the beach by the Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club, athletes swam one lap of a

00:45750-meter course, biked four laps of 5 km each, and ran two 2.5 km circuits in search

00:53of the first WTS points of the year.

00:56The Abu Dhabi event saw thousands of age group participants, over 2,000 athletes in total

01:01raced the course on the Abu Dhabi's Corniche.

01:04The ITU World Triathlon Series also debuted three distances, Sprint, Olympic, and Maxi.

01:10More than 600 athletes flew to Abu Dhabi for the event, including athletes from Bahrain,

01:15Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Brazil, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Netherlands,

01:20France, Yemen, and many more.

01:23The series started exactly where it left off last year, as reigning ITU World Champion

01:28Gwen Jorgensen proved she will again be the woman to beat with a stunning performance

01:32in the season opener.

01:33Jorgensen left the water 35 seconds behind the leaders and then stepped onto the run

01:37course around one minute down.

01:39She then caught 45 seconds of that deficit in the first 2.5 km lap.

01:44She took the lead from Bermuda's Flora Duffy with about 1.5 km to go and pushed further

01:49ahead to win in 58 minutes and 58 seconds.

01:52Her run split was 15 minutes and 57 seconds.

01:57In the Elite Men's category, Spaniard Mario Mola proved himself a specialist sprint distance

02:02triathlete, winning the race in 52 minutes and 31 seconds.

02:06The Spanish triathlete only broke away from the others halfway through the 5 km run and

02:12was trailed closely by Vincent Luis and Richard Murray, who finished second and third respectively.

02:17Mola's final sprint allowed him to finish ahead of Vincent by 13 seconds.

02:22Ayrish Idenbileza for Golf News.

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