Men
Both Olympic champions took to the start line at the 2005 World Championships in Gamagori. Simon Whitfield and Hamish Carter each arrived in Gamagori in fine fettle alongside contenders such as Frederic Belaubre, Brad Kahlefelt and Courtney Atkinson.
Each of those men exited the water in the front group. Meanwhile, two-time world champion Peter Robertson entered T1 some 45 seconds behind the leader. Over the course of the bike, Robertson was able to make up the ground lost in the swim and the race ultimately came down to the run.
A front group of five slowly pulled clear of the field, containing Belaubre, Carter, Reto Hug, Kahlefeldt and Robertson. An expertly timed kick, though, saw Robertson break away at the finish to take the win. Finishing a mere five seconds behind was Hug, while Kahlefeldt took bronze.
Of his numerous victories, Robertson’s 2005 World Championship win is the one that is particularly memorable. He was called up to the Australian team only 12 days before the race in an emotional year where his mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Despite the rocky build up to the race, he was able to call upon his experience to navigate his way to the win.
Before the starting gun sounded, few would have picked Robertson for the win. While he had an impressive palmares, his form in 2005 had not set the world alight. Indeed, he did not medal at a World Cup race in 2005. As a result, his triumph in Gamagori was one of the more surprising victories of his career. As his third world title, though, it had to be one of his sweetest.
2005 was a bit of a strange year with winners seemingly coming from all directions. There was no real indication of one athlete being better than the rest.
Hunter Kemper won the most World Cup medals with five, while Tim Don had the most World Cup wins with three. On a similar note, at only three World Cup races did the winning man have a winning margin of greater than 15 seconds.
Women
In contrast to the men’s race, the women’s race at the 2005 World Championships was not even remotely close. Emma Snowsill won her second world title by a whopping 100 seconds.
The race had unfolded rather intriguingly early on. A group of eight women broke clear on the swim, including Snowill, Annabel Luxford, Laura Bennett. Together, the group worked well on the bike and built a lead over the chase. One individual in the chase pack was Vanessa Fernandes. Having lost over 40 seconds in the swim, she would go on to lose over a minute to the leaders on the bike.
Once the leaders made it onto the run, though, the race was over. Snowsill dominated the run, unleashing a 34:57 split. For context, Luxford, the silver medallist, ran a 36:40. Bennett came home in third.
Despite her deficit, Fernandes managed to battle to 4th place courtesy of a 35:07 run split. However, the day was entirely about Emma Snowsill. Across the season, though, Fernandes made a strong case to be considered as Snowsill’s equal. She won four World Cups in 2005, although Luxford took the most medals with seven (of which one was gold).
As was the case in 2006, Snowsill won two World Cups, the first of which came at the first World Cup of the year in Honolulu. Fernandes and Snowsill also almost shared the biggest winning margin in 2005. At Honolulu, Snowsill won by 116 seconds while at the Mazatlan World Cup Fernandes won by 115 seconds.
The biggest World Cup win of the year actually went to Luxford as she won her sole victory by a remarkable 126 seconds.
