With cheers of a home nation crowd, Canada’s own Lionel Sanders claimed victory to become the 2017 Penticton ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Champion.
Overcoming a large deficit from the swim and a flat tire on the bike, the Canadian delivered a come-from-behind performance to collect the first world honour of his career.
“That has got to be the hardest I have ever ran. Unfortunately I got a flat on the bike, the technical descent scared the crap out of me. I think it was a testament of two things: always carry a spare and second, it is not over until it is over.” Lionel said. “I like adversity. I don’t ask for it but it always seems to come for me. So I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to win this thing, with a flat tire and that became my motivation, so you can do a lot of things when you are highly motivated.”
 Lionel Sanders(Photo: Wagner Araujo / ITU; click to enlarge) |
Taking the silver medal was Josh Amberger (AUS), who held the race lead for the majority of the competition. The bronze then went to another Aussie, Joe Gambles.
Preparing for a full morning of triathlon racing, the men’s roster lined up for an early start to kick off the last day of competitions at the 2017 Penticton Multisport World Championships event.
The 24-deep list of elite men ran from their beach start into the Okagagan Lake to start the three-kilometre lap swim. The swim course included two long one-kilometre straight parts that intended to split the field. Two men managed to get the edge, Amberger and Spaniard Pablo Dapena Gonzalez exited the waters first with a lead of about two minutes over a pack of four men including Mark Buckingham (GBR) and Andy Potts (USA).
Sanders was about four minutes down in the swim, but is known to always make a comeback in the next two legs of the race.
Once onto the bike, Amberger quickly separated himself as the race leader. He intensified his lead pedal after pedal. The 120-kilometre bike allowed for many changes in the field among the top ten, but all kept gunning for the Aussie. The 2016 ITU Long Distance World Champion, Sylvain Sudrie (FRA) pushed himself into the silver position, with Canada’s Sanders in hot pursuit. Eventually Sanders overtook Sudrie near the middle of the bike leg, but a flat tire out on the course pushed Sanders back to third as the two headed back into the second transition.
Amberger sped into T2 after dominating on the bike; he had created over a three-minute lead over the chase. However, the run is Amberger’s softer spot, which meant that every second earned needed to count in order to fend off intruders of his pursued title.
With Sudrie in second and Sanders in third, young USA’s Drew Scott came into T2 in fourth, with Gambles in fifth.
With still about two hours of racing to go from a 30 km run course, the world crown was still anyone’s for the taking.
Before long, Sanders catapulted himself into second again with the intention of going for the gold as well. While there was no change in the lead after the first two laps, Sanders had pushed his gap down to about two minutes with still over ten kilometres to go.
It was then after the bell that Sanders finally caught his goal and overtook Amberger.
The lead then did not change and Canada was free to welcome its hometown hero to the stage as Sanders crossed the line at 5:20:36 to grab the finisher’s tape and become the 2017 Long Distance World Champion.
Just under two minutes later, Amberger crossed to take the silver medal, exhausted but rightfully earned after having a crushing performance. The bronze then went to Gambles, who earned his medal on the run. His last minute effort on the last lap brought him in to capture the last spot on the podium, a feat he did not know was secured under the final metres of the race.
Results: ITU Long-Distance World Champs
Elite Men
1. Lionel Sanders (CAN) 5:20:36
2. Josh Amberger (AUS) 5:22:09
3. Joe Gambles (AUS) 5:26:23
4. Andy Potts (USA) 5:27:25
5. Drew Scott (USA) 5:32:19
6. Francisco Serrano (MEX) 5:36:05
7. Jeff Symonds (CAN) 5:37:08
8. Mark Buckingham (GBR) 5:38:48
9. Paul Ambrose (AUS) 5:40:56
10. Nathan Killam (CAN) 5:43:36
