Triathlon: Whitfield and Montgomery display iron in their soul

Canadians shrug off fitness worries to win men's and women's triathlon titles

This was no place for Lowry's matchstick men yesterday as the iron men and women of the triathlon entertained 100,000 spectators crowded around the purified water of Dock 9 and spread along the route designated for the cycling and running segments of this gruelling event.

Iron men and women? The phrase is trite even when applied to Daley Thompson and Margaret Thatcher. But it does seem apt in describing Simon Whitfield and Carol Montgomery, the sport's inaugural Commonwealth Games champions – Canada's finest.

After receiving their gold medals, Whitfield and Montgomery acknowledged that they were fortunate not to be back home in British Columbia nursing injuries. Montgomery damaged her right foot while travelling from Vancouver to Manchester via Toronto. She might have been tempted to say that a funny thing happened to her on the way to Salford Quays, except what happened was slightly embarrassing as well as extremely painful.

Delayed for four hours at Toronto Airport, Montgomery decided to go for a run on a piece of ground outside the terminal building and "stepped funny and tripped over" on a grassy bank. She has a suspected stress fracture an competed yesterday only after being given a painkilling injection.

"I didn't think I'd finish the run today, but it worked," the 35-year-old Montgomery said after completing the 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run in 2hr 3min 37.86sec. She kept in touch with the lead group in the swim and cycle legs and pulled ahead of her rivals in the run.

Leanda Cave won the silver medal for Wales in 2.03:37.17 and Nicole Hackett took the bronze for Australia in 2.03:42.81. The women had the worst of the weather, their race taking place first, when the rest of the city was as wet as Dock 9.

The doughty Montgomery is prone to physical problems. In December 1999, she consulted a specialist about a pain in her left leg and was told she had a major blood clot and was given three options of treatment: dissolve the clot; surgery; or amputation.

"She was told that if she didn't have amputation, she would die," recalled Paul Regensburg, Triathon Canada's high performance director. Montgomery had surgery and happily there was no need for the more drastic solution.

"All of a sudden," Regensburg added, "Carol was running 32minutes 11 seconds for 10km and made the Olympic team, so she joked that she wanted to get the other leg and both arms done." Ten weeks ago, after feeling numbness in her left leg, Montgomery was told there was a minor blockage in an artery. This was cleared by key-hole surgery.

Just when everything seemed to be going well, Montgomery let her bike slip while attempting to lift it down from the hooks it rests on at her home, and the frame broke. The mishap delayed her journey, but was this was a minor irritation compared to what befell her at Toronto Airport.

At one point, Regensburg admitted, the Canadians were starting to plan for the possibility of having to compete here without either Montgomery or Whitfield, the Olympic champion, who fractured both wrists in a multi-bike crash during a World Cup race in April.

Whitfield was not prepared to miss the opportunity of adding to the gold medal he won in Sydney. "I kind of decided I was a super-healer," he said. "I'm a very competitive person, and having no outlet except Nintendo was very difficult for me. But I never felt sorry for myself and stayed positive."

Whitfield demonstrated the point the moment he hit the water yesterday, remaining steady and calm even though others threatened to leave him in their wake. Whitfield remained unruffled in the cycling, confident that his running strength would count when it mattered. Stuart Hayes, of England, and Australia's Chris McCormack broke away, but Whitfield stalked them until he was ready to make the decisive move with a burst of pace that made the rest appear to have switched to a reverse gear.

The 27-year-old Whitfield came home in 1hr 51min 57.94sec, raising his arms in triumph as he approached the line, 2.33sec ahead of Miles Stewart, of Australia, and 6.35sec in front of Hamish Carter, of New Zealand.

"Yesterday," Whitfield said, "my girlfriend reminded me of a Muhammad Ali phrase I like: 'The work is done long before I dance under the lights'. I kept that in mind." He added that he also wanted to do well for the sake of Kelly Guest, a team-mate who was sent home on the opening day of the Games after testing positive for nandrolone at a previous event. The Canadians intend to contest the decision. Yesterday, however, was all about hard-earned success.