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Joey Mantia did it again
Incheon, 29 May 2011: Joey Mantia (Simmons-Schänkel, USA) remains the guy to beat for the international top inline skaters, winning the Incheon World Inline Cup 2011 in a photo finish against Yann Guyader (Powerslide Matter World, FRA). Half a minute later Yann's teammate Scott Arlidge crossed the finish line to complete the podium.
While in the first half of the race all attempts to separate from the pack were not successful, Joey, Yann and Scott broke away together with two Koreans before 10 km away from the finish Mantia and Guyader left the other three behind to look for a one-on-one-decision. Once again the US-skating star made sure his skate was ahead on the official picture. Yann Guyader's second place is good for taking over the lead in the World Inline Cup ranking though after winning in Rennes two weeks ago.
In the women's race it was again Nicole Begg ((X-tech MPC-International, NZL) who was trying to set a tone through the race with only limited help from the other skaters until finally she found a group together with GUO Dan (CHN), JANG Su Ji (KOR) and LEE Seul (KOR). But her work earlier on appeared to be too power-consuming and she fell behind the trio on the final sprint that was won by Guo in front of Jang and Lee. "It was a good race with all the top Korean skaters and the Chinese team with 4 very strong athletes being in Incheon. I did not have enough power left for a stronger final finish but I am happy with the result and the time," Nicole said after the competition.
The next World Inline Cup event is the Class1 race in Dijon on 12 June 2011 followed by another Class1 in Ostrava the weekend after. |
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