Spend Densham's early exit from World Title race

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October 20, 2012

An exhausted Olympic bronze medallist Erin Densham has home on her mind and a well deserved rest after being forced out of today’s ITU World Triathlon Championship grand final in Auckland.

The 27-year-old came into the race as the world number one after a long ITU Series in and around the London Olympic campaign but also under the weather after picking up a cold and a cough five days ago.

And she withdrew on the second leg of the bike when the Australian team pulled her out – not wanting her to do any further damage.

“If there wasn’t a world title on the line then I certainly wouldn’t have started,” said Densham, who will fly home to Sydney tomorrow morning.

“I actually felt Ok after the first lap of the swim when I came out of the water second but when I dived back in I had no energy at all and when I started on the bike I just started going backwards and couldn’t stop coughing – I had nothing.

“When I saw one of the Australian coaches who I respect and he waved me in and said that’s enough, I knew it was time to stop. I had been in two minds myself at that point.

“You never want to stop, you always want to keep going but I was going backwards.”

Densham said because of her illness, she wasn’t able to do the work that was required for the brutal Auckland course and its three hill climbs on the bike.

“There was no place to hide out there when you haven’t done the work on the bike. If it was a flat course then you might be able to hide, but not on a course like this,” said Densham.

“I did everything I could to get to the start line but it just wasn’t meant to be. There’s always next year.”

Densham also reflected on the best year of her career.

“There was a certain level of surprise but I always knew I was capable of it,” said Densham.

“Next year I might mix things up a bit, have some fun and do some different races. They have a world championship every year – the Olympics only come once every four years.”

In the end it was Anne Haug (Germany) who won the day ahead of Gwen Jorgenson (USA) and Barbara Riveros Diaz (Chile) with Haug’s training partner Olympic silver medallist Lisa Norden fourth to clinch the world crown.

“I dug so deep for that one and I’m honestly still stunned it worked out. World Champion will take a while to sink in,” said Norden.

Densham has already put Rio on her may as have her team mates Felicity Abram and Ashleigh Gentle (who suffered a puncture on the final lap of the bike)  who were 18th and 26th respectively with Felicity Sheedy-Ryan 30th.

Abram, at 26, has missed the last two Olympic teams but admits her love of the sport and racing will keep her hungry for an other Olympic campaign.

“I would just love to have a smooth run over the next four years – it has been very up and down in recent years and I just need a consistent run at everything,” said Abram.

“I still have the hunger to go to the Olympics and I am going to do everything I can to get to Rio – four years is not that long.

“I am happy in my training environment in England and the fact that I have been accepted over there. One of my training partners is Non Stanford won the under 23s earlier in the day so that was good.”

Abram praised the encouragement of her boyfriend, London Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee and his bronze medal winning brother Jonathan for their encouragement.

“I have been in Triathlons for a long time but I have learnt so much from Alistair over the last 10 months. He has been so encouraging and I owe him a lot.

“Hopefully the next four years will allow me to finally fullfil my potential.”

Earlier in the day Australia’s under 23 women Natalie Van Coevorden, Ashlee Bailie and Charlotte McShane finished fifth, seventh and 12th respectively.

It was a particularly brave effort from Bailie who was fronted and held up by an official in T1 and red-carded for allegedly cutting short the swim course.

And despite being announced as a disqualification several times during the race, the determined South African-born Wollongong-based Western Australian kept going.

In the end a successful appeal by the Australian team quickly over-turned the red card.