Men
As was the case in 2003, the world championships were the final event of the year. Held in Cancun, the men’s race had a number of strong contenders, with Simon Whitfield leading the way.
The only male Olympic champion in the world at that point, Whitfield won the first ever Commonwealth Games triathlon earlier in the year in Manchester. Miles Stewart came home in second, while future Olympic champion Hamish Carter took third. Both Whitfield and Stewart won two World Cups in 2002, as did Peter Robertson.
Robertson started the season well by winning the first World Cup of the year in Geelong. Greg Bennett, though, soon kicked into gear. Over the course of the season, Bennett won five World Cup medals, the most of any man. He also had the biggest World Cup winning margin with a 31 second victory in Gamagori.
After winning the European championships in Gyor, Ivan Rana Fuentes had also marked himself as a force on the circuit and a challenger for the world title. Once he also won the final World Cup of the year in Funchal, Rana Fuentes was clearly among the favourites.
In Cancun, a group of seven men pushed the pace in the swim however the field quickly bunched together on the bike. Although another small group tried to surge clear on the bike, most of the main favourites, including Robertson and Rana Fuentes were close to one another. Stewart did not finish the bike course while both Whitfield and Bevan Docherty lost time to the main group.
Once the main group made it onto the run, Robertson and Rana Fuentes began to surge ahead.
Rana Fuentes broke away towards the end on his way to a 32:05 run split to take the win. Robertson could only manage a 32:31 as he took second. Andrew Johns rounded out the podium.
Future Commonwealth champion Brad Kahlefeldt won the U23 race in Cancun while 2004 Olympic bronze medallist Sven Riederer came second.
Women
In a Canadian double, Carol Montgomery won the first Commonwealth Games triathlon, matching the success of Simon Whitfield. Leanda Cave finished second and Nicole Hackett came third.
Each of the Commonwealth medallists was on the start line at the world championships in Cancun. Cave and Barbara Lindquist were together throughout and had some of the fastest swim and bike splits of the field.
Meanwhile, Michelle Dillon lost almost a minute in the swim and then a further 40 seconds on the bike. She had the third fastest run split of the day (37:16) to vault herself onto the podium. By the midpoint of the run, though, the race had clearly become a battle between Cave and Lindquist.
In the end, Cave had too much for Lindquist on the day and took the win by 10 seconds.
Cancun was the first international win of Cave’s career. After finishing second at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and at the European championships Gyor that year, she had been knocking on the door.
The fastest run of the day in Cancun actually went to Carol Montgomery. She recorded a split of 35:48, some 88 seconds faster than Dillon and 137 seconds faster than Cave. However, Montgomery had already lost the best part of four minutes to the leaders by the time she arrived into T2.
Throughout the season, Cave did not medal at a World Cup and the best performer at that level was Siri Lindley. Lindley won four World Cup races and took six medals in total. Lindquist, meanwhile, won five World Cup medals, of which one was gold.
