De Villiers third in World Cup triathlon
Brad Morgan
7 May 2008
Defending champion Hendrik de Villiers held on for a bronze medal as German world champion Daniel Unger and American Matthew Reed filled the top three placings at the Richards Bay BG Triathlon World Cup in the City of uMhlathuze on the KwaZulu Natal north coast on Sunday.
For Unger, who won in one hour, 52 minutes and 49 seconds - ahead of Reed (1:52.50) and de Villiers (1:52.50) - it was third time lucky, in his third visit to the scenic city.
"It was a great feeling to be challenging for the title among two of the great sprinters of the world in Reed and last year's winner De Villiers, but it was even a greater feeling to win my first World Cup title," said Unger afterwards.
'High standard'
"Having been unable to win the title on the two previous occasions here in Richards Bay, I decided that this was going to be my day. It was quite windy out there on the cycle, but the pace was averaging around 42 kilometres per hour, which gives an idea of the high standard of racing today."
Estonia's Marko Albert was first man out of the water after the 1.5-kilometre swim, with Swiss star Sebastien Gacond and last year's silver medallist Volodymyr Polikarpenko of the Ukraine, as well as Reed and De Villiers, just off the pace.
The USA's Brian Fleischmann provided a classy cycling display and gave the large crowd much to cheer about as he opened up a 24-second lead over the field after the fifth of eight laps on the 40 kilometre circuit. In the closing stages of the cycle, however, he was joined up front by Reed and the pair reached the transition point and headed out on the 10 kilometre run stage together.
Sprint finish
Reed managed to break away early in the run, but was chased down by De Villiers, Unger and Reinaldo Colucci of Brazil. The American athlete then managed to open up an eight-second lead over the rest at the start of the final lap, but Unger pushed the pace up the final climb and managed to out-sprint Reed and De Villiers to claim the title.
For the second year in succession the women's title was won by a Canadian as Carolyn Murray succeeded Kirsten Sweetland as champion. It was her first win in a World Cup event, which emulated Sweetland's achievement of 2007 as well, and a considerable improvement on her previous best World Cup result of eighth.
Felicity Abram of Australia finished three seconds behind Murray, whose winning time was two hours, three minutes and 32 seconds. Third place went to Switzerland's Magali Di Marco Messmer, six seconds behind Abram. Kate Roberts was South Africa's best performer, coming home in 20th place.
Race breakdown
American Sarah Groff enjoyed a 22-second lead after the swim and managed to increase her advantage to over half-a-minute on the bike before the chasing pack reeled her in. A second pack then caught up to the leaders, resulting in 36 women entering the transition together.
Murray and Australia's Tania Halboeck took the lead after the first lap of the run before the Canadian pulled away, with fellow Canadian Canadian Kathy Tremblay and Switzerland's Di Marco in pursuit.
Abram managed to haul in the two runners chasing Murray to grab second, with Di Marco taking third 10 seconds in front of Tremblay.
RESULTS Men- D Unger (Ger) 1:52.49
- Matt Reed (USA) 1:52.50
- H de Villiers (SA) 1:52.50
- K Jones (Can) 1:53.00
- L Vidal (Fra) 1:53.05
- R Colucci (Bra) 1:53.17
- D Polyansky (Rus) 1:53.30
- S Berk (Ned) 1:53.31
- S Agoston (Aut) 1:53.34
- D Marques (Por) 1:53.37
- Carolyn Murray (Can) 2:03:32
- Felicity Abram (Aus) 2:03:35
- Magali Di Marco Messmer (Sui) 2:03:41
- Kathy Tremblay (Can) 2:03:51
- Ricarda Lisk (Ger) 2:04:11
- Nicky Samuels (Nzl) 2:04:20
- Tania Halboeck (Aut) 2:04:24
- Marion Lorblanchet (Fra) 2:04:28
- Emma Davis (Irl) 2:04:29
- Maria Czesnik (Pol) 2:04:36
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