DENSHAM AND SEEAR ON COMEBACK TRAIL IN ISHIGAKI
TRIATHLON, April 15: Beijing Olympian Erin Denham and Australian Olympic shadow squad member James Seear will continue their remarkable returns to major international racing in Sunday's second round of the 2011 ITU Triathlon World Cup series in Ishigaki, a scenic southwestern island in Japan.
It is a second coming for Densham who had returned to international competition throughout 2010, after she was formally diagnosed with SVT (Sub Ventricular Tachycardia).
Heart specialists located the exact location of the problem and were able to ablate the area, giving her the green light to return to training and racing.
Densham went on to win the Continental Cup races in Singapore, Morocco and Belgium before her first ITU World Cup win in Holten, Holland.
But the ITU London World Championship race last year Densham was involved in a fall that saw her injure her hamstring.
Three weeks later she recorded a fourth place at the ITU Sprint Distance World Championships but she was not able to return to full training and subsequently withdrew in the run leg of the Budapest World Championship final after placing herself in the front group.
VIS Head Coach Jono Hall is more than satisfied that Densham is now well and truly back on track and is looking to produce a good race in a strong field in Ishigaki.
"Erin has taken a long break from competition over the summer and has worked on her weaknesses and is now back at about 85 percent fitness and is ready to start her progression again," Hall said from Ishigaki today.
"She has raced well locally in the later months of the summer and Sunday is her first real step towards performing to her potential in a race that has attracted a great field given the Olympic qualification points on offer.
"Our focus remains on posting the best performance possible at the London World Championship leg later this year."
The former under 23 World Champion who finished second in the Ishigaki World Cup in 2008 on her way to Olympic selection, won last month's Gatorade St Kilda Triathlon over the sprint distance course of 750m swim, 20km cycle, and 5km run.
Sunday's women's field will feature three members of the ITU Gold Group, Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI), Helen Jenkins (GBR) and Mariko Adachi (JPN).
They all competed in the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Sydney last week, yet Riveros Diaz scored a far better result than the others, finishing second to Canadian Paula Findlay by two seconds.
Queensland's 2010 ITU World Junior champion and 2011 ITU Oceania Champion from Mooloolaba, Ashleigh Gentle, along with Charlotte McShane and Amy Roberts will join Densham among the other Australian starters in the women's field.
Meanwhile 24-year-old Seear has also shown enormous courage to fight his way back from a serious broken collarbone after a bike fall in Murwillumbah last December that required insertion of a plate and 11 screws.
The determined young Queenslander fell to the bitumen after running over a snake while on a QAS training camp in the northern NSW town.
After three-months of recovery and countless hours of rehab and preparation, Seear made his return to racing at the ITU Mooloolaba World Cup, finishing in the bottom half of the field.
But it was a start for the youngster who has his sights set on reaching the top of Australian Triathlon, as his sister Maxine did when she made the 2004 Athens Olympic team.
"It has been a long haul but I am just happy to be back racing again and looking forward to building up my strength and race practice," said Seear as he displayed the scar along his right shoulder.
"This race will be another stepping stone for me and I'm sure I'll be feeling a lot better after getting Mooloolaba out of the way, it was a tough day."
Seear will feature among a group of emerging talents who will line up along with 2002 ITU World Champion Ivan Rana (ESP) and Russian Ivan Vasiliev, who led the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Sydney race after the swim.
Vasiliev's teammate Vladimir Turbaevskiy is another to watch, finishing 20th at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Grand Final Budapest last year.
Other strong contenders are three-time Olympian Hunter Kemper (USA), Seear (AUS), who was 3rd in the 2010 Mooloolaba ITU Triathlon World Cup, and Andreas Giglmayr (AUT), who was 30th in Sydney last week.
Seear will have a group of young Australians on the starting line including, Mooloolaba's ITU 2011 Oceania Cup runner-up Ryan Fisher, Oceania Championships runner-up from Wellington this year Aaron Royle as well as Cameron Good and Drew Box.
About the race:
The Ishigaki ITU Triathlon World Cup is the longest running ITU World Cup event, having been held every year since 1996. The island, approximately 2,000km southwest of Tokyo, becomes a triathlon mecca in Japan's triathlon scene over the years of development, drawing over 1,600 age-group triathletes from all over the region. The emerald green ocean welcomes athletes every year.
SCHEDULE:
Elite women start - Sunday, April 17 - 1:10 p.m. (UTC/GMT +9)
Elite men start - Sunday, April 17 - 3:45 p.m. (UTC/GMT +9)
WEBSITES:
ITU homepage: www.triathlon.org
LIVE COVERAGE:
Follow @triathlonlive on Twitter for live text updates on the race day.
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY:
$50,000 USD (equal for men & women)
COURSE PROFILE:
Swim - Two-lap, 1.5k swim in Tonoshiro Fishery Harbor
Bike - Seven-lap, a technical 40k leg with athletes riding up and over a large bridge
Run - Three-lap, 10k run including the same hills of the bridge
PAST ISHIGAKI WINNERS:
WOMEN MEN
2006 Debbie Tanner (NZL) Courtney Atkinson (AUS)
2007 Vanessa Fernandes (POR) Courtney Atkinson (AUS)
2008 Emma Snowsill (AUS) Simon Whitfield (CAN)
2009 Juri Ide (JPN) Courtney Atkinson (AUS)
2010 Kiyomi Niwata (JPN) Valentin Meshcheryakov (RUS)
-
Australian Sports Commission: Triathlon Australia is proudly supported by the Australian Sports Commission, the Government body that develops supports and invests in sport at all levels in Australia