Jorgensen Repeats in Yokohama

YOKOHAMA, Japan — U.S. National Team member and 2012 Olympian Gwen Jorgensen picked up her first ITU World Triathlon Series title of the year and second-straight win in Yokohama on Saturday.

Jorgensen (St. Paul, Minn.) posted the winning time of 1 hour, 58 minutes, 38 seconds on the standard 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike, 10-kilometer run course. She posted the fastest run of the day (33:43) to surge ahead 3 kilometers into the final leg to repeat her Yokohama title from 2013. Japan’s Ai Ueda was second in front of a home crowd with a time of 1:59:14, and Agnieszka Jerzyk of Poland was third in 1:59:24.

Jorgensen connected with the lead pack early on, exiting the water just 6 seconds behind the leader, Caroline Routier of Spain. Though the chase pack made up time over the nine-lap bike course, Jorgensen stayed toward the front of the bike pack and began the run in a small group with Ueda and Belgium’s Claire Michel. Around the 3k mark, Jorgensen broke away to finish with a solid gap over the field for the win.

“I know that if I give my competition an inch, they’ll take a mile, so it’s something I’ve been focusing on,” Jorgensen said in a post-race interview with ITU media. “I was fortunate today, there was a long run to transition, so I think that helped out.”

With today’s win, Jorgensen moves to the No. 2 position in the Threadneedle ITU World Triathlon Series Rankings with 1,824 points.

“I’ve really been working on the swim and the bike,” Jorgensen said. “I think that’s the focus and I know that I have to become a complete triathlete. I look at my peers – some of the men – and they really execute on the swim, bike and run. That’s what I want to do as well.”

Jodie Stimpson from Great Britain remains in first after finishing ninth in Yokohama, and American Sarah Groff (Hanover, N.H.), who did not have this event on her season schedule, moves to seventh. Complete series rankings for the women and the men are available at triathlon.org.

The next stop in the eight-race ITU World Triathlon Series will be a sprint-distance event in London on May 31-June 1. Then, the best in the world will head to Chicago on June 27-29 for the only U.S. stop of 2014.

ITU World Triathlon Yokohama
1,500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run

Women —  Click here for complete results
1. Gwen Jorgensen (St. Paul, Minn.), 1:58:38
2. Ai Ueda (JPN), 1:59:14
3. Agnieszka Jerzyk (POL), 1:59:24
18. Kaitlin Donner (Satellite Beach, Fla.), 2:01:08
33. Lindsey Jerdonek (Sagamore Hills, Ohio), 2:02:49