Eighth in the Tongyeong Triathlon World Cup presented on Saturday in South Korea, Amélie Kretz blamed herself after the event. For a handful of seconds, she missed the first bike peloton which would have allowed her to be at the height of the fight.
Posted at 11:52
La Blainvilloise stopped the clock at 1 hour 58 minutes 44 seconds on the Olympic distance course (1.5 km swimming, 40 km cycling, 10 km running). Small consolation, she equals her best result this season, she who also finished eighth at the World Cup in Bergen, Norway, last August.
Kretz fell 1 minute 36 seconds behind the winner, Frenchwoman Audrey Merle. The podium was completed by the German Annika Koch and another Frenchwoman, Mathilde Gautier.
I’m not super happy. I missed the first group [de vélo] of just a few seconds and with the third best running time, I know I have the form to make a podium. It’s a little annoying, but hey!
Amelie Kretz
The 29-year-old athlete did try to make the connection alone for a while, but in vain, she eased up and was then swallowed up by the hunting group in which the collaboration was not always effective.
“For three laps, we worked well and we were three or four girls motivated to take over at the front. The gap with the leading group was around 20 seconds. Then they were demotivated and they stopped working. I wasn’t going to do the job alone either and in the second half we lost 1 minute. It was really disheartening and frustrating, but that’s the reality. »
The Quebecer started her season late due to a stress fracture in the neck of a femur that took time to heal. As a result, she has dropped in the international rankings, which leaves her with the worst places to choose from on the starting pontoons.
Despite this, the double Olympian is continuing her rise in the international rankings and she will have the advantage of not being at her wits end at the end of the season, especially in anticipation of the World Series final (the equivalent of the World Championships). , taking place November 24-26 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
“The form is really there. The more I race, the more momentum I have and the better I run my races. I still have three or four races left and I can’t wait to see what happens. It just takes all the pieces of the puzzle to come together in one day,” she concluded.