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 Paula Findlay of Edmonton leads fellow competitors in the running portion of her World Championship Series debut in Hyde Park in London, England. Findlay won the gold at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship. (DELLY CARR/ITU) |
Paula Findlay was 12 years old when the World Triathon Championships were held at a Hawrelak Park, University of Alberta, Groat Road course in Edmonton in July of 2001.
“I was there. But I hadn’t started thinking triathlon yet. I was a swimmer then,” she said on the phone after establishing herself as one of the very best in the world Saturday on the course she almost certainly will return to with hopes of winning a medal at the 2012 Olympic Games.
And she certainly hadn’t thought of being a World Championship calibre triathlete.
“I didn’t even start until I was 16 or 17 and I certainly didn’t have thoughts like that,” she said in an interview with Sun Media before she went to bed last night.
Saturday the Edmonton red-headed rookie won the gold medal in her her World Championship Series debut in Hyde Park in London, England, shocking the world by doing it in her first appearance in a World Championship Series event.
The race was the fifth in the seven-stop series which makes its next stop in Kitzbuhel, Austria, in mid-August. The series champion will be crowned in Budapest in September.
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“Being my first one I really didn’t know where I could finish. I came here just hoping I could finish in the top 15,” she said. “This is totally surprising.”
With not having competed in the first four events Findlay isn’t going to win it even with 800 points she earned Saturday. Emma Moffat of Australia leads with 2539 and Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand, who finished fourth Saturday, is second at 2501.
But to beat a top field on the course where they’ll hold the 2012 Olympics is a total triumph.
Canadians heard the reaction of the emerging young star of the sport who climbed out of the picturesque Serpentine Lake in the middle of the historic and massive city-centre park early Saturday morning well back of the pack. She chased down the front group through the bike section and then chased down and eventually ran away from three of the top 10 finishers from the Beijing Olympics.
“Oh my God this is so unbelievable,” she beamed at the finish line.
The now 21-year-old showed her emotion as she put her face in her hands before reaching the ribbon to win it with a time of 1:51:48.
It took her longer than that to emerge from drug testing after the race.
“I was crossing the finish line and I just couldn’t believe it. It was such a crazy feeling,” said the Edmonton competitor, who won her first World Cup race in Mexico this year.
“I immediately thought of everyone at home and how cool this was to win such a big race. I’m still just absolutely shocked.
“I felt better than ever on the run (Saturday)and just kept pushing as hard as I could,” said Findlay, who ran
four abreast with Switzerland’s silver medal-winning Nicola Spirig, bronze-medal winner Helen Jenkins of Great Britain and Andrea Hewitt of New Zealand down the streets of London before pulling away with a mile to go.
“Running in a group of four at the front is tough because you know only three will be on the podium,” she said. “I wanted to do whatever I could to be in the top three. I really didn’t think I could break away and I 100% did not expect to win the race. I was just doing everything I could to get a spot on the podium.”
In her most recent race in Des Moines, Iowa, Findlay finished fourth.
Triathlon Canada sent it’s entire support team to the event as a test run for the Olympics and had Findlay at a high-altitude training camp in the Pyrenees Mountains.
“I felt so good on the run. I’ve never felt that way before, so I think I was prepared properly,” she said.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca