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Mola crowned the 2016 ITU World Champion
- Updated: September 19, 2016
Spain will add another name to their list of world champions after Mario Mola’s fifth place finish in the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Cozumel saw him win the 2016 ITU World Championship title in a dramatic finish.
Earning the gold for the race was South Africa’s Henri Schoeman, his career first World Triathlon Series win. The win came in the final 500m, as Schoeman bypassed Jonathan Brownlee (GBR), who struggling in the heat, and Alistair Brownlee (GBR), who had stopped to help will his brother over the line.
Alistair, who won Olympic gold while his brother took silver in Rio last month, assisted Jonny to continue racing, wrapping his arm around him and helping him run stride for stride. With Mola back more than a minute, second was Jonny’s best shot at taking the world title. Wobbling down the finish chute, the brothers managed to scurry across with Jonny taking silver and Alistair winning bronze on the day.
However, a quickly charging Mola, who got wind of Jonny’s state from his support team, and found a late surge to maintain his top ranking in the Columbia Threadneedle Rankings with a fifth-place finish. That meant Jonathan finished in second-place overall for the season, with Fernando Alarza maintaining his third-place in the Columbia Threadneedle Rankings.
“First of all this was not how I wanted to win the world championship. Luckily I was able to be in the top five considering Jonny didn’t win the race. To be honest, I was already considering that the role of Alistair was to help Jonny,” said Mola of his newly earned crown. “Considering that, I thought, well I’m going to be second again, but at least I will fight until the end. And when I heard Jonny isn’t feeling well, I thought ‘I need to fight to the end’. We want everyone to be safe after the finish line, it’s not the way I wanted it, but that’s triathlon.”
Following an appeal by the Spanish Triathlon Federation to disqualify Jonathan Brownlee for accepting assistance from Alistair Brownlee to finish the 2016 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Cozumel, during which Jonathan struggled with heat exhaustion in the final portion of the run, the ITU …
