January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Butterfield finishes 13th in World Championships
Richardson survives crash to take 19th in age group
Butterfield finishes 13th in World Championships
Past Male Athlete of the Year Award winner Butterfield placed a highly commendable 13th overall in the men's pro division while veteran Richardson finished 19th overall in the men's 50 to 54 age group.
Butterfield completed the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 run in an overall time of three hours, 42 minutes and 43 seconds while Richardson came home in four hours, 32 minutes and four seconds.
Yet, while Butterfield endured an incident free event, the same cannot be said about Richardson, who crashed on the bike just past the halfway stage of the race course, suffering road rash and a deep gash in his hip and elbow that required stitches.
Reliving the nasty spill, Richardson said: "I was on the bike having this unbelievable ride but there was a lot of traffic on the road and this is where the problem started.
"For an event that is a world championship the course was so flat it was hard to get through the people that were in front of you. Triathlons are supposed to be non-drafting events but there were lots of people cheating by hanging on my wheel when you're supposed to be riding nice and clean.
Accident
"This went on and on and at about mile 28 I struck a cone in the middle of a three lane highway trying to get away from the drafters at about 27 miles per hour and went down hard and wrecked my shoulder and put a big hole in my elbow and hip."
Badly injured, Richardson was forced to make the difficult decision of either calling it a day or soldiering on.
He added: "After laying there for awhile I hopped on the bike and kind of gingerly got going again.
"I eventually finished the ride and was calling for a medic to get bandaged up as I was running through but nobody was acute, and so I just chucked on the running shoes and ended up knocking out the run."
Despite his ordeal Richardson managed to set a new personal best and reckons he could've done even better had it not been for his spill on the bike.
He said: "It's a huge PR for me but I think it could have been something a little better. I have never been one to say I should've, would've, could've ........ but I know I could've easily had a top ten finish."[[In-content Ad]]
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