Men
Only two men won more than one World Cup race in 2001: Simon Whitfield and Martin Krnavek. Both managed to win two races in a season in which eight men won a World Cup.
Krnavek had the biggest winning margin of the World Cup season, taking the win at Corner Brook by 27 seconds. Meanwhile, the fastest run split went to Chris Hill, who recoreded a 30:41 in Cancun.
At the World Championships in Edmonton, Peter Robertson won his first world title. He was in the middle of the pack in the water but produced the best bike split of any finisher. Although three men out-split him on the run, he had done enough to secure the world title by 11 seconds.
Chris Hill finished second and Craig Watson came third. Watson narrowly beat Hill to the fastest run of the day (31:32 against a 31:35).
The reigning Olympic champion Whitfield finished in sixth place.
Women
Siri Lindley was a dominant force in 2001 as she won five World Cups. In a season containing ten World Cup races, she impressed by returning with six medals in total.
Lindley also had the four largest winning margins of the World Cup season. Her wins of 37, 43 and 49 seconds were impressive enough. However, it was her winning margin of 131 seconds in Toronto that really stood out.
Although Lindley was regularly produced the fastest run split in her wins, Carol Montgomery actually had the fastest World Cup run split of the season, a 34:01 in St. Petersburg. Montgomery also won two World Cups in 2001, which were her only medals on the circuit.
Barbara Lindquist won four World Cup medals, none of which were gold.
At the World Championships in Edmonton, Lindley initially found herself on the back foot in the swim however she was quick to make up the ground on the bike. By the time she arrived in T2, she was with the leaders and in pole position to take the win. So it would prove as she recorded a run split of 34:54 to take a comfortable victory.
Michellie Jones and Joana Zeiger rounded out the podium.
As was the case at the 2002 World Championships, Montgomery had the fastest run but had conceded too large a deficit to be in contention. Her time of 34:52 was narrowly better than Lindley.
Alongside this, a notable aspect of Edmonton was that the future Olympic champion Nicola Spirig won the Junior women’s race.
