BEIJING — Germany's Jan Frodeno kicked past Canada's Simon Whitfield in the final 100 meters to capture the gold medal in the Olympic men's triathlon Tuesday morning (Monday night U.S.).
Frodeno, a day after his 27th birthday, finished in 1 hour, 48 minutes, 53.28 seconds.
"This was the race of my life," said Frodeno, a 6-foot-4, 165-pounder who trains in South Africa. "I had the tunnel vision that I've always wished for."
Whitfield, the 2000 Olympic champion, held on for silver in 1:48:58.47.
The two co-favorites followed.
New Zealand's Bevan Docherty, silver-medalist at the 2004 Olympics and this year's World Championships, bagged bronze in 1:49:05.59. That was more than eight seconds ahead of world champion and top seed Javier Gomez of Spain.
The course began with a 1,500-meter (metric mile) swim on the Thirteen Ming Tombs Reservoir, followed by 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) of cycling and a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) run.
Three-time Olympian Hunter Kemper of Colorado Springs led the U.S. trio, placing seventh in 1:49:48.75. He finished 17th at the 2000 Olympics and ninth in 2004.
"It was really warm today, but I did all I could," said Kemper, 32. "That's all I had. My run-fitness wasn't quite there where I wanted it to be."
Temperature at the start, 10 a.m. (p.m. EDT), was 81 degrees, with 69 percent humidity.
Jarrod Shoemaker of Sudbury, Mass., finished 18th (1:50:46.39) and Matty Reed of Boulder, Colo., took 32nd (1:52:30.44).
"I felt like I met my expectations," said Shoemaker, at 26 a first-time Olympian. "I felt good on the run but my legs were a little dead on the bike, so I just did what I could.
"I was coming on strong at the end, but I was a little too far coming off the bike. When you're 30 seconds down, you can't really make it up."
Reed, a New Zealander who became a U.S. citizen in 2007, said he wasn't sure why he didn't meet expectations.
Frodeno, sixth at last year's World Championships, emerged from the swim in 16th place (18:14). He was 11th off the bike (1:17.41 total time). He finished with the fastest 10K split, 30:46.
New Zealand's Shane Reed - Matty's brother - was first to finish the swim, in 18:00. Igor Sysoev of Russia was two seconds back, followed closesly by Frederic Belaubre of France, then Kemper (18:04).
Shoemaker was 23rd in the swim (18:19) and Reed was 36th (18:25).
Gomez ranked eighth, Whitfield 22nd and Docherty 31st.
Dirk Bockel of Luxembourg and Axel Zeebroek of Belgium pounded the bike, taking a 45-second lead on the rest of the pack as the run began. Neither had anything left, though.
Zeebroek would wind up in 13th place, Bockel in 25th.
With 2,000 meters left, the lead pack was down to four - the three medalists and Gomez.
Whitfield briefly dropped back about 5 yards, looking beaten. But he came back with about a quarter-mile left and kicked past everyone.
Whitfield had no regrets.
"I'm thrilled. Everything's OK," he said. "I tried to stay around until the finish. ... I told myself to fight back and fight back."
But Frodeno got in the last word.
"I knew this race would be hard," he said. "When you've prepared for that, you know you can do the last 500 meters. You can rest later."