Jones Uses Late Kick to Win Triathlon by One Second

Her kick sent the competition spinning, but it was Michellie Jones who was dizzy once she crossed the finish line.

Jones, an Australian who is training temporarily in Del Mar, sprinted to a one-second victory over Encinitas’ Paula Newby-Fraser in the San Diego Danskin Women’s Triathlon at Mission Bay.

After more than an hour of trading leads, Jones, 22, caught Newby-Fraser, 29, with five meters to go, winning in 1 hour, 5 minutes and 56 seconds.

“It was a sprint home,” Jones said after the half-mile swim, 12.4-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile footrace. “It was just like (how you’d feel) after a real hard sprint workout. I stayed on her shoulder the first two miles, then in those last few meters, I surged.”

These two have met like this before. At an Oxnard triathlon recently, Jones’ kick at the finish gave her a two-second margin of victory, but at a distance almost twice as long as this sprint race.

In the Danskin series, Jones and Newby-Fraser finished 2-3 in the Milwaukee and San Jose events, but their times weren’t nearly as close as Sunday’s.

“This race was much faster, especially the last mile, which was very fast,” said Jones, whose next race is the World Championships, Oct. 5, in Queensland, Australia. “Paula ran very well today.”

Well enough for Newby-Fraser to yell “this was my best sprint race,” after she crossed the finish line. “This is my speed workout,” she said. “My best time’s 17 (minutes) flat (in the run). We ran a 17:16.”

The other elite women were far off the pacesetters. Gail Laurence of Lawton, Okla., was third in 1:07.54 and fourth-place Joan Hansen of Tucson was a full minute behind Laurence. Jacqueline Komrij of Rohnert Park was the first out of the water but faded to 11th (1:11.18).

By virtue of her San Diego victory, two second-place finishes and a fifth, Jones finished second overall in the Danskin series, won by Karen Symers of Medford, Mass., who won the first three stops of the series but didn’t race here. Newby-Fraser was third overall.

While Jones focuses on that race, Newby-Fraser used this and a series of sprint races since July to prepare herself for the Oct. 17 Ironman. Newby-Fraser has won it three times, including 1989 and 1990, and feels confident she is ready for 1991.

“Whenever I race good at the sprint distance, I know I’m doing well,” she said.

Well enough not to feel threatened by Jones recent success--she has won four of 13 races in her five-month stint here, including the last two. Rather, Newby-Fraser see Jones as the up and coming woman triathlete in the world.

“She’s the future of our sport,” she said. “I look at her and that’s where I was seven years ago, only I didn’t start until I was 22 or 23. She’s one of the top three in the world at this distance. I don’t see any reason why she can’t excel in the longer distances either, when she’s ready.”

Triathlon Notes

Including 36 relay teams, 687 women competed Sunday. From the 10th-place finisher on down, there was confusion concerning finish times. The timers were told there would be a two-minute delay between heat starts at the swim, when it actually was only a 60-second wait. . . . Karen Symers flew in to San Diego from Las Vegas, where she finished second Saturday in the Las Vegas Challenge, to accept a car as the series’ overall winner. She said racing on consecutive days would have been difficult to attempt. . . . Sacramento’s Sally Edwards, one of the sport’s pioneers, finished second in the 40-44 age group in 1:19.00. Edwards, 44, will compete in her 13th Ironman next month. . . . Danskin President Greg Roark said the series will add three stops next year: Miami, Dallas and Germany, and return to San Diego.