There are only so many times in life one can travel to Australia and for Marta Menditto (ITA) it would have been understandable had she succumbed to the temptation to spend her remaining days in Townsville enjoying the beaches, fauna and other delights on offer over racing again before returning to Europe. After all, she had already claimed the cross triathlon world title and had thus secured what she had come for. Menditto, however, was not ready to wind down. She set aside the many distractions of her locale and came away with another gold medal with a professional display at the World Cross Duathlon Championships.
Menditto held a slender lead into T1 with a trio of Kristina Lapinova (SVK), Carina Wasle (AUT) and Hannah Young (AUS) hot on her heels. Maeve Kennedy (AUS), the bronze medallist in the world cross triathlon, had work to do after arriving in transition a minute behind the leader. She did not panic, though, and managed to pick off all athletes ahead except Menditto. The Italian athlete was a class apart on the mountain bike trails. She clocked 1:00:04 for the 20.5km course and would arrive in T2 with a lead of over 90 seconds.
After logging the fastest first run and fastest bike, Menditto did not complete the sweep with the top second run split but it did not matter. She was able to enjoy the final stretch along the beach before turning onto the blue carpet and sealing a second world title of the week. “My main goal was the triathlon,” she said afterwards. “The third run is always brutal when you arrive after the first run and the bike. I felt so bad on the bike - maybe I was efficient again - so I’m really happy to win again.”
With a big push in the final stages, Lapinova managed to pass Kennedy on the run. The Slovakian athlete’s split of 14:20 was the fastest of the field by 37 seconds and none of the podium ran within 57 seconds of her. Lapinova later said, “I’m really happy I tried the duathlon because I was really poor on the bike in the (cross) triathlon. Today was a better day for me. I managed to stay with the girls and then on the second run I said to myself ‘it’s now or never because you know I’m 40’ and I’m happy I passed the second woman and took the silver.”
Kennedy would then cross to take her second bronze medal of the World Multisport Championships. Shortly after, Laura Gillard (AUS) broke the tape to claim gold in the U23 race and 4th overall.
