Two US athletes will be looking to win their third titles in their respective events as the Diamond League moves to Stockholm Thursday. Kendra Harrison has already set American and Diamond League records in the 100m hurdles while winning in Eugene and Birmingham. She’ll look to make it three in three tries on Thursday after having not participated in the race in Oslo last week. Christian Taylor also did not compete in Oslo, in the triple jump, but won the event in both Doha and Eugene to start the year. Michael Tinsley is also going for a third win this year, in the 400m hurdles, but Tinsley has the distinction of having gone for the same feat last week and finishing third in Oslo. Tinsley is joined in the field by Kerron Clement who was second in Eugene and Bershawn Jackson who was third in Eugene.
Dentarius Locke is the lone American in the 100m after grabbing third in Oslo last week. Brittney Reese (first in Eugene) and Tianna Bartoletta (third in Shanghai) will give the US two of the top competitors in the long jump.
Tejay Van Garderen and Andrew Talansky finished 40th and 49th in the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse but only were two seconds behind the stage winner as they continue to be in the top 20 overall and both gained a spot. Talansky is now 16th, 39 seconds back, while Van Garderen is 41 seconds back in 18th. For the first time in the event the US had six in the top 100 with Kiel Reijnen in 75th, Joe Dombrowski in 79th, Tyler Farrar in 94th and Peter Stetina in 99th. Dombrowski is now 39th overall, 1:35 back, with Boswell 78th and Stetina 95th.
The race continues with a 78.5 mile mountain stage on Wednesday and continues through Sunday with only mountain stages and a 10 mile time trial on Saturday to come. Lots of potential for movement as the stages to come challenge the riders.
After seeing 40 or more riders from the US in the two races held on US soil it’s back to the more normal handful size group at the Aviva Women’s Tour. Of the four riding Katie Hall has the best finish, seventh in the Amgen Tour of California, and was also 14th in the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic. Tayler Wiles was also strong in California where she finished 20th. Lauren Rathbun is participating in her first race of the year.
The Aviva Women’s Tour starts with an 82-mile stage on Wednesday and runs through Sunday.
Tejay Van Garderen and Andrew Talansky both finished three seconds behind the top three in 23rd and 24th place in the third stage of the Tour de Suisse as the two Americans started to move up the overall standings. Talansky is the top American in 17th, 33 seconds back, while Van Garderen is both two seconds and two spots behind him. Joe Dombrowski made it three Americans in the top 40 when he finished 17 seconds back in 40th. The Americans managed to get five in the top 100 as Ian Boswell was 67th and Peter Stetina was 93rd. Dombrowski is now in 37th, a minute back, with Boswell (67th) and Stetina (97th) also in the top 100 overall.
The race continues with a 119.9 mile flat stage on Tuesday and continues through Sunday with four mountain stages to come and a 10 mile time trial on Saturday.
Aaron Gwin was dominant on Sunday winning the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup downhill event in Leogang, Austria by over three seconds. Gwin needed a couple minutes to take the lead on the clock but really pulled away down the stretch. With the win Gwin has a commanding lead over Troy Brosnan of Australia who finished in third. Gwin leads Brosnan by 160 points with only 200 points being awarded to the winner each week.
Things didn’t go as well for the other two Americans as Luca Shaw finished 36th and Eliot Jackson was 50th. Shaw is still 12th in the season standings.
The next UCI Mountain Bike World Cup downhill event will be in Lenzerheide, Switzerland on July 9th and 10th as part of a combined stop with the cross-country events.
The US women once again are champions of the Water Polo World League Super Final as they picked up their tenth title in 13 tournaments with a 13-9 victory over Spain in the final. The US defeated the Spaniards for the second time in four days by taking a 3-2 lead after the first eight minutes and pushing to a 7-4 lead half way through. Spain stayed in reach with a 3-3 third quarter but the US put it away in the fourth for the four goal win. For the third straight game no American had more than two goals with Courtney Mathewson, Maddie Musselman, and Maggie Steffens sharing the goal scoring lead. Ashleigh Johnson had nine saves in the win.
The Olympic women’s water polo tournament begins August 9th and runs through the 19th. The USA has been drawn into a group with fellow finalists Spain, their semifinal opponent China, and Hungary. They will open their Olympic play on Tuesday the 9th with Spain.
USA Results:
Group B Tuesday – USA 20-2 Brazil
Group B Wednesday – USA 11-8 Canada
Group B Thursday – USA 12-10 Spain
Quarterfinals Friday – USA 14-7 Russia
Semifinals Saturday – USA 11-5 China
Final Sunday – USA 13-9 Spain
The US was not far from winning the Freestyle Wrestling World Cup on Sunday but two tiebreakers going the wrong way saw the US knocked to fourth instead of having a shot at the top spot. It started with a group deciding match against Iran, the four-time defending champions. The US fell behind as they lost the first two matches but then won four of the next five to set up a winner-take-all match at 125kg. Jake Varner lost the match 3-1 to Parviz Hadi and Iran went to the gold medal match against Russia with the US being forced to settle for a bronze medal showdown with Georgia.
The script stayed exactly the same for the US against Georgia as once again they lost the opening two matches and won four of the next five to take the lead. This time the 125kg bout featured Zach Rey but he was unable to get the win and the bronze for the US as he lost 6-2 to Geno Petriashvili.
Frank Molinaro, James Green, and Kyle Snyder went 2-0 on Sunday and 4-0 for the tournament.
US Team:
57 kg – Daniel Dennis – 2-2
61 kg – Tony Ramos – 2-2
65 kg – Frank Molinaro – 4-0
70 kg – James Green – 4-0
74 kg – Alex Dieringer – 2-2
86 kg – J’Den Cox – 3-1
97 kg – Kyle Snyder – 4-0
125 kg – Jake Varner – 2-1, Zach Rey 0-1
Gwen Jorgensen is building a new winning streak. The American got her second straight World Triathlon Series win on Sunday when she once again cleared the field and won by almost a minute. With a time of 2:00:33 she held off second place Flora Duffy of Belarus by 51 seconds on this occasion to grab the top spot. Jorgensen wasn’t the only one with a good finish as fellow American Sarah True finished 15th. On the men’s side neither William Huffman and Hunter Lussi were factors in the top spot with Huffman finishing 28th and Lussi in 34th. Both were over five and a half minutes behind the winner.
The next Triathlon World Series event is in Stockholm, Sweden on July 2nd.
Previous IRU World Triathlon Series Coverage: Leeds Preview
Brent Bookwalter finished 49th at the Criterium du Dauphine as he pushed into the top 50 with a 44th place finish in the final stage, 12:58 behind the stage winner. Bookwalter was not the top American on the day with Alexey Vermeulen finishing ten spots in front of him in 34th, 9:40 back. Benjamin King and Alex Howes made it four in the top 100 for the third time in the final four stages as they finished 75th and 85th. All three finished in the top 100 overall as King was 77th, Vermeulen in 82nd, and Howes in 98th.
Sunday in the Tour de Suisse Tejay Van Garderen finished as the top American in 46th place, part of a large group of 122 riders that finished three seconds behind the winner. Also finishing in that group were Andrew Talansky in 64th, Joe Dombrowski in 94th, Ian Boswell in 113th, and Peter Stetina in 114th. Talansky is now 40th overall, 30 seconds back, with Van Garderen two seconds further back in 47th. Stetina in 51st and Dombrowski in 86th make four Americans in the top 100. The race continues with a 119.7 mile flat stage on Monday and continues through Sunday the 19th.
Other than the Tour de Suisse the next event on the UCI World Tour schedule is the Tour de France beginning on July 2nd and running through the 24th.
Sage Donnelly was third in the women’s K1 cross event as for the second straight weekend the US appears to have a strong set of competitors in the new event. Donnelly had a decently easy path to the final as she was one of only eight to compete in the seeding trial run which she finished third in. All eight who qualified were advanced from the quarterfinals to the semifinals where Donnelly came in second in her heat to reach the final. Fellow American Ashley Nee did not take part in the event despite being in the start list.
On the men’s side Richard Powell was sixth in the trial run with Tyler Smith tenth though all 21 who entered advanced to the 1/8 finals. Both were in heats that had just two in the 1/8 finals so they advanced automatically. In the quarterfinals both won their heat and ended up in the second heat of the semifinals together. Smith held off Powell for second in that event to grab a spot in the final. Smith was last in the final to finish fourth while Powell finished second in the small final to finish sixth.
Earlier in the day Casey Eichfeld was eliminated in the semifinals of the men’s C1 when he finished 25th of the 30 semifinalists. Eichfeld finished in 106.64 after two penalties and missed a spot in the final by 4.34. In the men’s K1 semifinals Michal Smolen was 22nd in the semifinals out of 40 and missed a spot in the final by 2.53 after finishing in 97.23.
The third stop on the ICF Slalom World Cup is in Pau, France next month from July 17th-19th.