Snowsill leads Aussie sweep
By Amanda Lulham
April 18, 2005

ONE of the tiniest triathletes in the world produced one of the fastest runs in history as Emma Snowsill led home an Australian cleansweep of the Hawaii World Cup yesterday.

It was the first time in seven years the World Cup opener has been dominated by one nation, with Australian world champions Emma Carney, Jackie Gallagher and Michellie Jones achieving the feat in Ishigaki, Japan, in 1998.

Yesterday it was Snowsill (2:04.39), Olympic silver medallist Loretta Harrop (2:06.35) and rising star Annabel Luxford (2:06.38) who dominated proceedings in the 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run race in Honolulu.

Since the start of the World Cup series in 1996, a podium cleansweep has been achieved just 10 times prior to yesterday's event – eight times by Australian women and twice by Americans – and only four times in the opening round of the series.

Snowsill's 34min 01sec 10km was one of the fastest in World Cup history, with Australian-turned-Austrian Katie Allen running 33min 48sec to win gold at the Athens Olympics.

Yesterday, Allen ran 3min 26sec slower than Snowsill to finish 18th, while Olympic bronze medallist Susan Williams was seventh and fellow American and former world No. 1 Barb Lindquist sixth.

Snowsill, who is just 162cm and 50kg and was overlooked for Olympic selection in favour of teen Maxine Seear, trailed Harrop by two minutes going into the run.

By 2.5km in the 10km race Snowsill had caught Harrop and by race finish she had gained a 1min 56sec jump on Harrop, who was returning after an eight-month break since Athens.

In a Queenslander hat-trick Luxford, currently ranked No. 2 in the world, finished third just three seconds behind Harrop.