Aileen Morrison (No.2) leads the pack up the hill at the 2011 Huatulco World Cup Triathlon

Mexico is the final world cup triathlon of 2011 and Ireland’s top Olympic triathletes; Aileen Morrison and Gavin Noble were racing for more olympic ranking points to keep them inside the London Olympic qualification list.

It was a much better day for Aileen Morrison than Gavin Noble.  Aileen finished 4th, which added to her 4th place at the ITU World Champions Series in Japan last month puts a great finish is a season plagued with minor injuries.  Gavin unfortunately retired on the bike section, so no extra Olympic qualifying points this time.

Pos	First Name	Last Name	Country		Time	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
1	Juri	Ide	JPN		02:12:52	00:19:07	00:00:47	01:15:51	00:00:29	00:36:38
2	Annamaria	Mazzetti	ITA		02:13:39	00:19:15	00:00:46	01:15:44	00:00:25	00:37:29
3	Marina	Damlaimcourt	ESP		02:13:52	00:19:13	00:00:48	01:15:45	00:00:25	00:37:41
4	Aileen	Morrison	IRL		02:14:27	00:19:05	00:00:51	01:15:49	00:00:27	00:38:15
5	Mateja	Simic	SLO		02:14:37	00:19:18	00:00:49	01:15:38	00:00:26	00:38:26

Full Race Report from triathlon.org

Juri Ide runs away with Huatulco World Cup title

Japanese women continue to dominate the Huatulco ITU Triathlon World Cup.  With 2-time defending champion Ai Ueda not back to try for a third straight title, her teammate Juri Ide kept the title in Japan by storming to her second career World Cup victory.

Following a solid swim, Ide rode safely in the lead group before burying the field on the 10km run to win by a comfortable margin, stopping the clock at 2 hours, 12 minutes and 52 seconds.

Italy Annamaria Mazzetti crossed the finish line 46 seconds after Ide for silver in the second straight World Cup this year after finishing runner-up in Tiszaujvaros in August.  Spain’s Marina Damlaimcourt broke through for her first career trip to the World Cup podium, securing the bronze.

The day began with a 2-lap 1.5km swim in the warm waters in Santa Cruz Bay.  After the opening 1km lap, American swimming powerhouse Sarah Haskins led the women as they ran back into water for the second 500m lap.  But uncharacteristically, Haskins fell off the pace slightly and was 12th into the first transition.

Instead it was Bermuda’s Flory Duffy that led the women into T2.  Not far behind were Claudia Rivas (MEX), Ide, Ainhoa Murua (ESP) and Aileen Morrison (IRL) as the women headed onto the tough 40km bike course.

With the challenging hill re-inserted back into the course this year, the women had their work cut out for them as they tackled the hill eight times.

A lead group of 14 women emerged and they worked well together to build their lead and extend it with every lap.  Taking turns at the front of the lead pack were strong riders like Line Jensen (DEN), Duffy, Haskins, Morrison and Mateja Simic (SLO).

As if climbing the grueling hill eight times wasn’t tough enough, the scorching heat and rising temperature were sapping the athletes of much-needed energy.

As they came off the bike, the chase group was down by more than two minutes.  Mazzetti was first out of T2, followed by Duffy, Damlaimcourt, Simic and Morrison.  Ide exited T2 in 10th place but it didn’t take long for the Japanese star to surge to the front.

She made her move on the second lap and opened up lead of 23 seconds on Mazzetti and Damlaimcourt while Morrison, Duffy, Haskins and Simic all began to fall off the pace.

By the bell lap, Ide appeared to have the win locked up with a sizeable 39-second lead in hand, leaving Mazzetti and Damlaimcourt to battle for silver.

Finishing strong, Ide broke the tape to claim her second career World Cup title, sweet redemption after a difficult season in which she has battled a lower leg injury since last year.

Mazzetti ran clear of Damlaimcourt in the final lap to comfortably take silver.

Morrison finished up in fourth place while ITU Development athletes Simic and Duffy finished fifth and sixth respectively.