Triathlon shots.com - ITU London, England, world series triathlon 2009.

ITU series - 'Japan'

All photos by the editor of Satoshi Takasaki.

Some pre-race entertainment of the traditional kind.

A decent bike set-up for ITU racing.

Decent crowds in Japan for the swim/race.

A no wetsuit swim should allow the best swimmers to make a break.

As sea temperatures hung in the high twenties the warm marine conditions brought jellyfish in towards the shore, and unfortunately for Daniel Unger he got a bit too close for comfort.

Having been stung on his neck during the warm up the German 2007 world champion suffered with breathing problems in the water and dropped out on the first lap of the bike.

Staying focused is important.

Javier Gomez always seems to get on the podium.

Well he did crash badly the previous weekend in London so he is obviously made of strong stuff.

Following 20km of riding the small chase pack made their way onto the back of the leaders which was countered by a strong attack by Courtney Atkinson.

Courtney Atkinson a five time winner of the Ishigaki World Cup which is held in similar conditions, sprinted up the road from the chasers on a solo mission and was joined soon after by the German pairing of Frodeno and Maik Petzold.

70 second

Not a pretty site ; be careful cornering when white painted lines are in your path.

The view if you have just dropped off the back.

Well you could try and draft the motorbike as they do sometimes after stopping in 'Le Tour de France'.

The leaders entered transition with a 41 second lead, but they were soon whittled down to just two as Petzold suffered in the heat.

Kris Gemmell, Javier Gomez and Bevan Docherty also did more of their share as part of the chase pack on the bike so it couldn't be said it was an easy day for them.

Further behind the chasing athletes started to string out with just Gemmell and Laurent Vidal from France able to handle the fast Gomez pace as the Spaniard set about closing down on the Olympic champion.

e race.

As Frodeno put his head down and accelerated again Atkinson dropped back into the clutches of the closing trio who reduced the German's advantage to just 25 seconds with 5km left to run.

Remarkably, despite his fatigue, Frodeno was able to respond and pulled away again, buoyed on the possibility of winning his first Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Series race.

Gold – Jan Frodeno (GER) 01:44:31

Silver – Kris Gemmell (NZL) 01:44:49 +:18

Bronze – Javier Gomez (ESP) 01:44:52 +:21

4th – Laurent Vidal (FRA) 01:45:05 +:34
5th – Bevan Docherty (NZL) 01:45:39 +1:08
6th – Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 01:45:49 +1:18
7th – Yulian Malyshev (RUS) 01:45:51 +1:20
8th – Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 01:46:07 +1:36
9th – Dan Wilson (AUS) 01:46:18 +1:47
10th – Maik Petzold (GER) 01:46:35 +2:04

Post race comments from Gomez(behind Gemmel) included this below:

“It was an uncomfortable and complicated week with the long trip from London and with the crash last weekend it meant I couldn't sleep and train well so the podium is good but it was not a good day for me,” said Gomez. “The main problem was the heat, it felt a bit slow.”

This is quite a good clip and shows the distance the chase pack were looking at to bridge up to Frodeno.

' Hats off ' to Frodeno who run out the front solo for the last 5mins of the race or so and he was in the lead groups all day.

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