Men
Due to a combination of regular absences and a lack of a stand-out athlete that could dominate a race, no man managed to win more than one World Cup race in 2004. Dmitriy Gaag won four World Cup medals in the year, including one win. His winning margin was also the smallest of the season, a triumph of 1 second at the Tongyeong World Cup.
With the Olympic Games scheduled for August, the World Championships were held early in the year in Funchal, taking place in May. In what was the deepest non-Olympic race of the year, Bevan Docherty took the win. Funchal represented his sole world title and it could not have been a closer finish. Docherty and runner-up Ivan Rana Fuentes were alongside one another for vast tracts of the race and were the only two men to dip under 30 minutes on the run. In the end, Docherty summoned the final push required to win the race by 1 second.
The bronze medallist in Funchal was Dmitriy Gaag.
Close finishes were a feature of the men’s field in 2004. Only one man won a World Cup race by more than 25 seconds: Shane Reed in Tiszaujvaros (where he won by 46 seconds). Without anyone stepping up to dominate the season, the race for Olympic gold seemed fairly open going into Athens.
The field did not break up too much in the swim, although Gaag was the biggest name to lose time and slip away from contention. It was on the bike that the key move was made. A group of six men, consisting of Hamish Carter, Sven Riederer, Olivier Marceau, Frederic Belaubre, Andrew Johns and Bevan Docherty built a solid lead. By the time they arrived into T2, they were around 40 seconds clear of the chase.
Johns and Marceau fell away early on the run. Belaubre was the next to fall off the pace as many men struggled in the heat of the Greek summer, leaving Carter, Docherty and Riederer to battle for the win.
Although Docherty fought to add Olympic gold to his world title, Carter had too much for him in the end and took the win. Riederer came home next for a well-deserved bronze.
Women
Anja Dittmer was the leading woman on the World Cup circuit as she took three wins across the season. She also had the most World Cup medals with five.
Dittmer was also one of the most impressive runners in the world of triathlon and she had the fastest World Cup run split of the year with a 33:50 at Tiszaujvaros. At the Hamburg World Cup, she also ran 34:39 which was the fastest of the day.
Annabel Luxford was close behind Dittmer on the World Cup medal count with four. The highlight of Luxford’s season, though, was her win at the World U23 Championships in Funchal.
In the Senior race at Funchal, Sheila Taormina powered to victory ahead of Loretta Harrop and Laura Bennett. At the Olympic Games, though, Taormina finished down the field in 23rd place as Kate Allen won the gold.
Harrop secured her second major championships silver of the year, while Susan Williams won bronze. Harrop actually led Allen by two minutes after the swim and added another 50 seconds to her lead during the bike.
However, Allen produced a blistering 33:47 run to Harrop’s 36:47 to steal the lead in final couple of hundred metres and win by 7 seconds. For context, 22 of the 45 finishers in the men’s race in Athens ran faster than Allen.
