Gomez and Paterson win XTERRA World Championship in Hawaii

Kapalua, Hawaii (October 28, 2012) - A tsunami warning for the Hawaiian Islands was canceled early on Sunday morning, and then Javier Gomez Noya and Lesley Paterson went out and stormed the competition at the 2012 XTERRA World Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua on the island of Maui.

Gomez Noya was the overall winner, completing the course (1.5-kilometer swim, 30K mountain bike, 10K trail run) in 2 hours, 26 minutes, 50 seconds.  The 29-year-old from Spain followed up his silver medal performance at the 2012 Olympics with an impressive victory in his inaugural XTERRA appearance.

Paterson was the top female, not only repeating her accomplishment of a year ago, but bettering it. She finished with a time of 2:44:11, which was nearly two minutes faster than her winning time of a year ago.

A capacity – and XTERRA World Championship record – field of 750 athletes from around the world participated in the event, which was held on Maui for the 17th consecutive year.

As if the lead-in drama to the event were not enough, a tsunami warning was issued for all of the Hawaiian Island late Saturday night. Many of the athletes stayed up late trying to get updates on the tsunami, and some were even evacuated from their hotels or homes.

“I think maybe some of the athletes had to evacuate or had to stay up a little bit later, but I don’t think it had a big influence on the race,” said Conrad Stoltz, who placed third overall. “I think we were lucky to have a fair world championship.”

Indeed, the conditions did not adversely affect the race, although an expected swell did create a rougher-than-normal ocean swim.

All of the XTERRA pros know who Javier Gomez Noya is. He is, after all, a two-time ITU triathlon world champ in addition to the 2012 Olympic silver medalist. They just didn’t know how good he might be on an XTERRA course.

He turned out to be exceptional. Gomez Noya made quite the XTERRA debut, running away to the overall win.

“I didn’t expect that,” Gomez Noya said. “I had a really good swim ... but I knew these guys like Conrad (Stoltz) and the good mountain bikers, they are much better than me, especially on the technical sections, so my tactic was try to push really hard uphill because then you can go hard uphill and then on the downhill just not even try to go crazy fast, just try to recover and avoid crashing. It worked pretty well.”

Gomez Noya won it with an astonishing swim and a strong finishing run. He exited the water by himself, with the others more than a minute behind. He maintained the lead for most of the bike, before Conrad Stoltz passed him late on the course.

“I was surprised they caught me so late,” Gomez Noya said. “It was mile 14, maybe something like that when Conrad came. The last technical section before transition, he made a little gap, maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds.”

Stoltz’s lead would be short-lived, as Gomez Noya regained control early on the run course. “Javier is an amazing all-around athlete,” said Stoltz, who owns a record four XTERRA world titles. “When I heard he was going to do this race, I knew he was definitely going to be a factor. Apart from his amazing physical abilities, his mental game is top notch.”

Gomez Noya, who received $20,000 for the overall victory, had the fastest swim and run times of the day.

Gomez Noya is the third Spaniard to win the XTERRA World Championship, joining Eneko Llanos (2003, 2004, 2009) and Ruben Ruzafa (2008).

2012 XTERRA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PRO MEN   

Pl    Name    Age    Hometown    Final Time    Purse
1    Javier Gomez Noya    29    Pontevedra, Spain    2:26:54    $20,000
2    Josiah Middaugh    34    Vail, Colorado    2:27:41    $12,000
3    Conrad Stoltz    39    Stellenbosch, South Africa    2:30:04    $7,000
4    Leonardo Chacon    28    Liberia, Costa Rica    2:30:19    $4,000
5    Victor Del Correl    32    Santa Olivia, Spain    2:30:24    $2,500
6    Brent McMahon    32    Victoria, B.C., Canada    2:30:56    $1,500
7    Asa Shaw    28    Frejus, France    2:32:16    $1,000
8    Tim Don    34    London, United Kingdom    2:32:41    $800
9    Yeray Luxem    26    Merkem, Belgium    2:33:10    $600
10    Olivier Marceau    39    Vallavris, Switzerland    2:33:36    $500

After breaking through for her first XTERRA World Championship last year, Paterson did it again. She was the top female, finishing with a time of 2:44:11.

“It was perfect from start to finish for me,” she said. “I’ve done some great training leading up to this. This was my big focus of the year, and it panned out exactly how I wanted it to.”

The 32-year-old from Scotland took the lead early in the bike and then ran away from the other women. She finished more than four minutes ahead of runner-up Barbara Riveros (2:48:18) from Chile. Marie Rabie from South Africa was third in 2:53:55, and Heather Jackson from Carlsbad, Calif., was fourth in 2:54:12. Riveros, Rabie and Jackson were all making their XTERRA World Championship debuts.

Paterson’s reputation has always been as a running specialist, but she has taken her mountain bike skills to a higher level in recent years and she now has two XTERRA world titles (and an ITU Cross World Championship) to show for it.

“I’ve done a lot of running off the bike, a lot of strength running off the bike, so I was prepared for that,” Paterson said. “To be honest, the bike felt real comfortable and I didn’t push it too hard so I knew I could come out and do a good run. I knew these ITU girls are quick runners so I had to really have my A game for that.”

True to form, Paterson had the best run time of the day (40:51), but for the first time in her five years of entering the XTERRA World Championship, she posted the fastest bike time among the women.

Paterson received $20,000 for the victory and is now one of three women with multiple XTERRA World Championships. Julie Dibens (2009, 2008, 2007) and Melanie McQuaid (2006, 2005, 2003) are the others.

“Congratulations to Lesley, she’s awesome,” runner-up Riveros said. “I think I have to do more hard work. I can’t just come here and say I know how to ride a mountain bike.”

It was also an impressive debut for Riveros, who was the only female to get remotely close to Paterson. “I’m pretty happy,” Riveros said. “To race XTERRA was one of my dreams, so I really enjoyed to race here.”

Third-place Rabie proved her worth on the trails, following a fourth-place finish at the 2012 Olympics. She got off to a quick start, leading the women out of the swim, and then got passed only by Paterson and Riveros.

“It was totally unexpected,” Rabie said. “Nothing compared to Lesley. She just flew past me on the bike, and I was kind of waiting for the other girls to catch me and they never did.”

Heather Jackson had a strong run to finish in fourth place, and Jacqui Slack from the United Kingdom took fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were (in order): Magali Tisseyre from Canada, Renata Bucher from Switzerland, former XTERRA world champ Shonny Vanlandingham from Colorado, Helena Erbenova from Czech Republic, and Marion Lorblanchet from France


Pl    Name    Age    Hometown    Final Time    Purse
1    Lesley Paterson    32    San Diego, California    2:44:12    $20,000
2    Barbara Riveros    25    La Pintana, Chile    2:48:19    $12,000
3    Mari Rabie    26    Stellenbosch, South Africa    2:53:56    $7,000
4    Heather Jackson    28    Carlsbad, California    2:54:13    $4,000
5    Jacqui Slack    29    Stoke-On-Trent, United Kingdom    2:55:19    $2,500
6    Magali Tisseyre    31    St-Sauveur, Canada    3:01:11    $1,500
7    Renata Bucher    35    Littau, Switzerland    2:01:51    $1,000
8    Shonny Vanlandingham    43    Durango, Colorado    3:02:24    $800
9    Helena Erbanova    33    Jablonec Nad Nisou, Czech Republic    3:03:48    $600
10    Marion Lorblanchet    29    Lempdes, France    3:04:21    $500
Also:    Elizabeth Orchard, Danelle Kabush, Melanie McQuaid, Brandi Heisterman, Katie Button, Caroline Colonna, Tamara Donelson, Catherine Dunn