Gwen Jorgensen Looks to Stay ideal in 2015

New Zealand triathlete Andrea Hewitt.

Gwen Jorgensen completed a ideal season, repeated as World champion and won her 13th straight top-level global triathlon in the World Triathlon Series Grand Final in drizzly Chicago on Friday.

And to think not even finishing fourth at the 2012 Olympics led True to consider herself a leading athlete, and that lack of self-confidence may have cost her a medal.

American Jorgensen broke away on the run to claim a second successive world title with her 15th victory in a row. Not feeling she belonged with the leaders when they surged at the end made her hesitate, leaving her 10 seconds from the podium in a two-hour race. True also has qualified for Rio. The 33-year-old continues to be the country’s finest talent in the sport ahead of the Rio Olympics.

Sailing star Hannah Mills was the first Welsh athlete to be officially selected for the Great Britain team last week and Stanford could achieve her Olympic dream in America this weekend. It will be a sort of Midwest homecoming for Jorgensen, whose hectic schedule has kept her outside of the United States for the entirety of 2015.

Jorgensen’s finished 29 seconds clear of Great Britain’s Non Stanford, with fellow Brit Vicky Holland third, a further 15 seconds back.

Hewitt raced eight worldwide Triathlon Union elite events this season.

“Bailie has been very consistent all season and he’s had three top tens and two of those have been top-five finishes”, Australia’s performance director Bernard Savage said.

Triathlon Australia are over the coming week set to announce which race in next year’s series will be a non-discretionary qualifying race, and it’s expected the Gold Coast event in April will be nominated. She didn’t finish the Olympic test event in Rio. She is such a strong runner anyone hoping to beat her must be at least 90 seconds ahead going into the 6.2-mile run leg.

Hewitt has finished just over a minute behind Jorgensen, with Simone Ackerman the next best placed Kiwi in 26th, more than four minutes off the pace. “This year I hopefully won’t have a big gap to have to close off the bike, but I know that the fans will definitely push me to the finish line”.